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It's been proven. Schools can be green and fabulous.

A new state-of-the-art school, T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia, has won the Green Innovations Award in the Best Institutional Project category at the Virginia Sustainable Building Network's annual meeting. T.C. High was built according to the standards and principles from the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED . The building was designed by Moseley Architects and built by the Hensel Phelps Construction Co. It will open on Sept. 4 for the 2007-08 school year.

Environmentally friendly features of the school include: "a 450,000-gallon underground cistern to collect and store rainwater for use in toilet flushing, air-conditioning operations and irrigation; a rooftop garden to provide stormwater management; waterless urinals to reduce the amount of water used inside the building; and a permanent measurement and verification system to track water and energy usage at the facility." The students have the opportunity to see their school's environmental footprint through the data collected at the central "dash board" in the Ferdinand T. Day Student Commons.

Want to tour the school to see what it is like? There is a Grand Opening Celebration for the Alexandria community on Oct. 14. For more information visit the ACPS (Alexandria City Public Schools) website .

Not to sound preachy or anything, but it is about time schools are built green. My only hope is that others follow suit. If you know of anymore schools that have a green design or are environmentally friendly in any way please feel free to post a link in the comments below so that we can cheer them on. You can also email me the information.

Gloria Campos-Hensley
Featured Blogger
InventorSpot.com