The Sustainable School

The Sustainable School — page 3 — Welcome to Birch Elementary Can you hear me I've been waiting more than a hundred years to be heard Maybe this is the year I'll finally be discovered CONSTRUCTION Hello What's sustainable mean Good morning Birch Principal York here Thanks for your patience as we make Birch a more sustainable school I know the construction is disruptive but the reward will be a school that succeeds now and in the future Class 6 I'm starting to think that being underground for so long isn't optimal for learning Have a great day Birch CONSTRUCTION Sustainability means having our needs met now without compromising the ability of people in the future to meet their own needs

The Sustainable School — page 4 — 6 Okay let's hear from our Eco Club representatives Class The energy audit showed that the school's furnace wastes energy by working harder when heat is lost through drafty windows An energy audit is a series of tests that analyzes a building's efficiency It checks how well a property functions by figuring out how much energy it uses and how much energy it wastes The obvious solution replace the old windows with new insulated ones to help keep heat inside in cold weather and outside in hot weather Nice It's always too hot or too cold in here

The Sustainable School — page 5 — And I know you all want to hear about the new plumbing GLASS Water you talking about Ha ha You know how it takes a long time for water to come out of the drinking fountain And how the school garden and baseball field always Look kind of dead We're getting a rainwater collection system with a massive storage tank It'll supply water for the school's grass trees and other plants That means the indoor plumbing system won't have to work as hard How big is massive Like 95000 liters or 25000 gallons big The rain on the roof will be collected and sent down to the storage tank

The Sustainable School — page 6 — Except for the water needed for the green roof We're creating a rooftop garden up there too It turns out our roof is good for more than Losing baseballs Ahem The green roof will have six layers What did they find 1 Plants 2 Soil or some other growing medium 3 A filter to keep plant parts from clogging the system 4 A drainage layer to prevent leaks 5 A root barrier so roots don't poke through the top-floor ceiling 6 A waterproof membrane Something has got the construction workers excited Whoa Sunshine IT'S HAPPENING Next we'll add solar panels to help the plants grow and eventually to help power the school

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