The project was funded by donations from the school community.
During the design phase, the school requested a lifecycle cost analysis of the sustainable strategies deployed in the building. The design team and contractor determined that the premium for upgrading the building from code-standard to LEED Platinum was 2.6% of the construction cost. This relatively low premium cost is the result of California’s advanced energy code and the town’s requirements for advanced stormwater treatment. To make a very conservative case, the payback period was assumed to be only 20 years, and energy and water costs were assumed to stay at current rates over those years. Additionally, our client asked that we ignore other documented cost savings and benefits of high-performance schools, including improved staff morale, reduced absenteeism and higher student test scores. Even based upon these exceedingly conservative assumptions, we were able to show that reduced utility bills would pay for the “green premium” within 9-10 years, and the additional savings in years ten through twenty was estimated at over $500,000.
