Welcome to AskGBA, where GBA staff and partners answer your questions related to all things green buildings, sustainability, and more!
This week, we discuss how teachers can improve the health of their classrooms, and how audits can give you insight into your home's energy performance.
There are many ways to make classrooms healthier and more sustainable for students! One of the easiest ways to promote sustainability is for teachers to adopt some practices of biophilic design. Biophilic design reaches into humankind’s innate desire to be in touch with nature. This strategy has been shown to boost mental and emotional health, improve test scores, and build social relationships between students.
Whether it be simple or complex, there are so many benefits of adopting aspects of nature in the classroom. Starting small, teachers can bring more plants into the classroom, open the windows more often (if you choose to do this, follow your local outdoor air quality to ensure you’re not opening windows on poor air quality days), or even buy a small fountain to incorporate soothing sounds of water.
Further, teachers can begin redesigning their classroom with earthy tones and art that reflects nature (this could even be art created by the students)! For more details, check out GBA's article about biophilic design.
Moreover, administrators and teachers can work together to consider building an outdoor classroom. Similar to the perks of biophilic design, this strategy helps immerse the students in nature. There are many great resources for setting up an outdoor classroom and you can read more about them in GBA's Outdoor Classroom resource page.
As for life in the classroom, teachers should look into a number of options regarding day-to-day sustainability practices. There are many resources to help schools and classrooms address both sustainability and student health, such as Women for a Healthy Environment which offers radon and lead testing for classrooms.
Want to learn more? Check out GBA’s Resources for Green Schools. Stay healthy!
This is a great question! If you are interested in improving your home’s energy performance, the best place to start is likely an energy audit. In this case, a professional would come to your house and identify all the opportunities where you can improve your efficiency. GBA’s own Chris Cieslak underwent an energy audit for her 100-year-old home. By following the auditor around, she learned a lot of low-cost DIY tricks to weatherize the doors, windows, walls and fireplaces, and to improve the air delivery of her ductwork. The auditor also helped her work through the sequence of big projects to tackle.
Some local utilities offer rebates to cover a portion of costs related to both energy audits and some of the investments that might be recommended as a result of the audit. For example, Duquesne Light offers residential energy efficiency rebates. The company also recently offered rebates related to whole-home energy audits (this program is now expired but may renew in the future), and also lists home appliance rebates by category. Columbia Gas also helps income eligible customers get energy audits and provides “instant rebates” for audit-recommended actions.
Even if rebates are not available, an energy audit will provide a great checklist for actions you can take as you are able, to both improve your building’s envelope (through things like weatherization and added insulation) and upgrade to more energy efficient equipment and appliances. There is so much that can be uncovered through an energy audit, and from there you can prioritize your next steps and continually improve your home’s energy performance. Contact GBA for first-level technical assistance and we can answer basic questions and connect you with possible auditors and contractors.
For more information about energy audits, visit our Energy Audits resource page.
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