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Sunday, April 15, 2012

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Going Green in BEX IV

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Going Green in BEX IV:


Going Green in BEX IV

The needs for BEX IV are considerable and complex.   But we have to hope that, moving forward, the district does give a thought and an ear to more green building and sustainable buildings.  If we are spending so much on buildings, there should be thought to how to build more cheaply and create buildings that will have lower operating costs.

This is going on in districts in our surrounding areas.  One example is in Marysville where after a bond got approved in May 2007, they built their high school bigger (almost 100,000 square feet more) and yet experienced only a slight uptick in energy costs because of their building practices.  They are using a geothermal heating/cooling system that is expected to save almost $60k per year versus the conventional boiler/chiller system.  SPS is also installing some of these geothermal heating/cooling systems.

Also, Marysville used stained concrete floors (very much a new