Some of us actually remember the days when we walked or rode our bikes to school. But today, the majority of America's schoolchildren attend schools more than two miles from their homes. Yet from a health perspective, community-centered schools--those located near local residents, anchoring nearby businesses, and usually smaller than new schools--promote more walking and biking to school.
This means less driving which cuts down on emissions and traffic congestion. And students who walk or ride bikes come closer to attaining the 60 minutes of daily exercise recommended for all school-age children. Most community-centered schools also use existing buildings and share their sports facilities or auditoriums with other local groups.
In the fall of 2008, The National Trust for Historic Preservation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) brought together experts in education, health, transportation, real estate, planning, and the environment to work on strategies for overcoming obstacles to community-centered schools. Some of these barriers include an assumption that older schools can't be retrofitted to provide a more modern education, a tendency to locate new schools in isolation from other developments, and insufficient funding to support routine maintenance of existing schools.
Yet according to the International City/County Management Association, recent estimates show that it takes up to 35-50 years for an energy-efficient new building to save the amount of energy lost in demolishing an existing building.
The Safe Routes to School National Partnership, formed in 2005, is a network of organizations, professionals, and government agencies advocating safe walking and biking to school. The organization notes that the average school size has grown, and new schools are increasingly located on large sites away from the neighborhoods whose families they serve.
Many school districts can only get state funding if they follow guidelines that require building large new schools rather than renovating or adding on to existing facilities. The National Organization for Historic Preservation is working with states to eliminate these funding policies.
Other observations by the organization include:
Renovating existing schools creates more jobs than building new ones. For every $1 million spent on a construction project, five new jobs are created in the rehabilitation of an existing building.
Community-centered schools are in use close to 24/7 by the neighborhood. Residents walk around the track while children use the playground, and community groups such as the YMCA or public libraries use the facility for a variety of programs.
Older schools are surprisingly energy efficient. Older school buildings often have several green features including a central location, high-quality construction, and passive heating and cooling systems.
Rehabilitating existing schools reduces construction waste. When non-residential buildings are demolished, 155 pounds of solid waste per square foot is added to local landfills in comparison to non-residential renovation that adds just 18 pounds of waste per square foot.
Read more on Celsias:
8 Ways to Inspire Re-Use in Your Community
