(Austin, TX) CLEAResult Consulting has partnered with The Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) to provide trainings to promote green, healthy schools in Texas. This spring, CHPS debuted the Texas CHPS Criteria (TX-CHPS), a new green school building rating program created to ensure that Texas schools have access to the tools and resources necessary to build high performance schools that can improve academic performance, reduce environmental impact, and lower operating expenses.
Bill Orr, executive director of CHPS, said, “CHPS is excited to partner with our sponsor organizations to bring these trainings to Texas schools and districts for free. Education is half the battle in achieving a new generation of healthy, high performance schools in Texas.”
The training sessions will be held December 7-9, 2009 in Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and Houston. School and district representatives can attend the training at no cost. Addresses and times for each session can be found at www.eeprograms.net/
“These trainings are great opportunities for school officials to receive objective advice on improving the performance of their buildings,” said Jonathan Kleinman, CLEAResult director of Texas programs. “We became involved in CHPS because we believe that high performance schools offer more than just energy savings – they can help improve student comfort and performance.”
Facilitated by CHPS staff and local partners, the training will provide an overview of the TX-CHPS program and resources. Participants will learn about CHPS’ program offerings, the TX-CHPS prerequisites and credits, and hear from local Texas practitioners on how to implement high performance schools in Texas.
A Texas-based advisory board, representing a broad range of school construction and operation stakeholders, developed TX-CHPS to meet the needs of Texas K-12 schools. The advisory board utilized the work of other states and adapted the TX-CHPS to the unique codes and regulations, climates, constraints, and local priorities of the state. Currently, ten Texas schools are pursuing high performance school certification with CHPS.
Participants to the training will gain access to the latest tools for planning for, designing and building high performance schools in Texas. CHPS provides resources – in many cases, at no cost – to schools, school districts and professionals about all aspects of high performance school design, construction and operation. In addition to the Texas CHPS Criteria, these resources include a well-respected best practices manual, a high performance building rating and recognition program, a sustainable products database, and soon, the Operations Report Card, a new program to improve the performance of existing schools.
