Oct 17 2014
Electronically-tintable SageGlass®, a product of Saint-Gobain, was donated to and installed at the Benjamin Franklin High School in New Orleans, helping a high-achieving school in one of the city’s more under-resourced school districts become a working model of green building efficiency.
SageGlass dynamic glass is one of a number of advanced building technologies donated by Saint-Gobain and other companies as part of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Louisiana Chapter’s Louisiana Green School Challenge – a program that aims to educate the public about the benefits of green building and environmental stewardship by participation in hands-on, experiential projects.
Benjamin Franklin High School, which was chosen as the Green School Showcase and suffered significant damage during Hurricane Katrina, was one of nine winning schools out of 40 who competed in the challenge. Located in the Gentilly area of New Orleans, roughly 50% of the school was damaged by two feet of water which stood for 30 days after the storm. SageGlass is part of more than $150,000 in green building products donated to the Benjamin Franklin school renovation.
The school will be available for tours as a live featured “case study” this week as part of a “New Orleans Green Schools Event” during Greenbuild 2014, the world’s largest green building conference and expo dedicated to sustainable building practices, education and technology.
“The Green Building Challenge has both practical and aspirational implications,” said Erin Ryerson-Hines who is heading up the program and is a designer at VergesRome Architects as well as host chair of Greenbuild this year. “First, we can create a school environment that’s more conducive to learning while saving energy, resources and money. More importantly, by exposing children to the issues of sustainability now, we can help raise a generation of environmentally-conscious adults. We are grateful to SageGlass and Saint-Gobain for their generous donations of advanced green building products.”
Nine SageGlass devices were used to replace a south-facing wall of fixed ribbon windows on the second and third floors of the school that were causing significant sun glare and heat gain problems. Prior to SageGlass, the HVAC systems struggled to cool these rooms, and students had to work in drearier classrooms because the shades were constantly closed.
SageGlass is advanced dynamic glass that maximizes daylight and outdoor views in buildings while controlling glare and heat gain, without having to use blinds or shades. While Benjamin Franklin High School is already one of the nation’s highest-ranking public schools, research suggests dynamic glass can help further improve its achievement record. Numerous studies have shown that providing abundant natural light and a connection to the outdoors results in higher student and teacher performance, attitudes and alertness. The classrooms retrofitted with SageGlass will also serve as a living teaching lab on sustainability and high-performance building technologies.
SageGlass and other Saint-Gobain divisions are part of a donor network of architectural, engineering and construction experts and product manufacturers that helped the school complete the classroom retrofit. In addition to SageGlass, the classrooms will be optimized acoustically with advanced ceiling tiles and wall panels from CertainTeed, a Saint-Gobain company.
“Getting students and teachers involved in environmentally-sound practices can lower operating costs, improve indoor learning spaces and positively impact lives for years to come,” said Derek Malmquist, vice president of marketing at SAGE. “We are grateful for the opportunity to support the Green Schools Challenge and give our team the experience of working on such an impactful project in the local community.”