Texas is known for the Alamo, spicy Tex-Mex food, big Stetson hats, and now it also has the nation's largest net-zero public school. Welcoming its first students this past fall, the Lady Bird Johnson Middle School in Irving Texas is a 152,000 square foot facility that produces as much energy as it uses thanks to wind turbines, solar panels, and a slew of the most advanced green technologies and building techniques. Dallas-based firm Corgan Associates led the design team, which incorporated a variety of experts to create a school that serves not only as a classroom, but also as a teacher of sustainability and energy-efficiency.
This is a perfect way to encourage and motivate students to consider and more importantly, CHOOSE alternative forms of energy. By immersing them in efficient technology, we can show them how application of such techniques and materials is beneficial in a wide scale. Hopefully more schools take note of Ladybird Johnson’s example and follow suit. Good job guys.
Juan Miguel Ruiz (Going Green)
http://www.GreenJoyment.com
This school is a shining example of what can be accomplished with today’s technology and good design. I hope school districts all over the world take noe.
Its all right, but net zero doesn’t anything to fix the fact that its an auto dependent location. I would rather have a non-net zero school in a location where the kids can walk to school then a net zero school any day. It uses less energy not to mention all the other benefits.
This is great, but the important part of this achievement should be the design effort that went into reducing energy consumption. Any school in a rich district can install enough solar panels to make it net zero – please tell us more about design that went into energy efficiency in these articles.