The Teaching Green School Building: Exploring the Contributions of School Design to Informal Environmental Education.

Abstract

The Teaching Green Building (TGB) is emerging as a way to engage building occupants in environmental themes through the architectural design of buildings. These buildings aspire to high levels of environmental performance and invite occupants to participate in the environmental story of the building and its day-to-day operations. While examples of TGB’s exist in the U.S. and beyond, they remain largely unexplored by empirical researchers. This research investigates the TGB from the occupant perspective to explore the ways in which architecture contributes to informal environmental education. The three primary goals of this work are to: (1) offer an interdisciplinary theoretical framework that links architecture with environmental education, (2) propose the concept of green building literacy as a goal for TGB’s, and (3) report the results of mixed-method empirical research that examines green building literacy in the context of five U.S. middle schools. The empirical work engaged 399 middle school students in both TGB’s and non-green school buildings. The methodologies included survey research, which targeted green building literacy categories, and a photography project, which offered a view of the school campus through the eyes of middle school students. Results suggest that the built environment of schools makes a significant difference for the enhancement of green building knowledge and environmental stewardship behavior. The effect of a TGB was greater for students not already exposed to environmentalism at home or in their broader communities. However, a new or renovated building may not be a requirement for advancing green building literacy. The findings suggest the effectiveness of small, organic interventions, such as modest modification to the schoolyard. These smaller interventions seem especially effective where the school philosophy promotes a child-centered, experiential approach to learning. Student home environments are also an important factor for knowledge and behavior. Green building literacy is thus influenced by a complex array of personal, sociocultural, and physical environment factors. Based on the findings both theoretical and empirical, this work concludes with insights for the practice of creating and operating buildings designed to teach.