Technical Session: School Role in Community Climate Adaptation and Resiliency for Buildings

TECHNICAL SESSION: SCHOOL ROLE IN COMMUNITY CLIMATE ADAPTATION AND RESILIENCY FOR BUILDINGS

CLICK HERE TO VIEW

• Joseph da Silva, EdD (moderator), School Construction Coordinator, State of Rhode Island, Past President,

National Council on School Facilities

• Mihir Parikh, Senior Program Director, Resilience. PMP, LEED GA, Enterprise Community Partners

• Craig Schiller, Executive Director, Collaborative for High Performance Schools

Joseph da Silva: This panel will consider a protocol for building better school facilities that are appropriate for learners with a focus on how to frame resiliency and adaptation.

Resiliency and adaptation are different terms, with different goals, but they are part of the same system for combating climate change. Resilience in the face of acute shock or chronic stresses involves economics, job loss, and racial issues, as well as chronic heat, all of which have disproportionately impacted disadvantaged communities. Think of resilience as planning for stressed or compromised immune systems.

Craig Schiller: A school architecture and design perspective often considers the building and draws the line at the ground itself. But there is another element: integrating with the community, which is critical when it comes to resiliency.

Mihir Parikh: Today’s crisis is not all doom and gloom. A lot of work has been done providing examples and experiences that are within our power to learn from and inform our work. We can start by focusing on existing guides, risk analysis tools, and practices. Let’s focus on what we can do!!!

The practicality of how to respond to climate and COVID stressors needs to include the community: schools, districts, communities, parents. Schools can become community resilience hubs. We can identify and build on existing and expected hazards and understand how local communities and schools are already addressing risk—for example, with power outages and older infrastructure. We also need to find places for resiliency examples in the curriculum.

Think of it in terms of a school’s role in the community and not just as a physical building. For example, schools have the ability to both communicate within the community during emergencies and to work preparedness into the curriculum with students and offer examples to parents and the community. Think of schools as community centers that operate all year.

Recognizing that resiliency covers a wide range of concepts and areas, CHIPS is developing guidance for best practices to help with vulnerability assessments. For instance, extreme heat. Designers should prepare for shading, green roofs, and appropriate landscaping, as well as operational needs like backup batteries so a school can continue to operate off the grid.