Energy Design Guidelines for High Performance Schools: Hot and Dry Climates, a new issue from the Department of Energy's Rebuild America program, offers a tool near and dear to busy architects' hearts: checklists of key issues, such as the one on site design, shown below. Other topics covered by checklists include: daylighting and windows, energy-efficient building shells, lighting and electrical systems, recycling systems and waste management, mechanical and ventilation systems, renewable energy systems, water conservation, transportation, and resource-efficient building materials.

It is worth noting that each item on the checklists is correlated to six performance criteria. The criteria might not compose your first guess of what they would be, but might be your studied opinion of what they should be:
• Reducing operating costs
• Designing buildings that teach
• Improving academic performances
• Protecting our environment
• Designing for health, safety, and comfort
• Supporting community values.

Click here to preview the checklist page on site design in the Guidebook.

The Department of Energy's Rebuild America program developed these guidelines from two years of discussions about best energy-savings processes with architects, school administrators, teachers, developers, and others with a stake in school design. DOE will be developing guidelines for six other climate regions in the near future.

The 88-page Guidelines covers each of the checklist topics in detail and provides an overall discussion of "whole building design." It is replete with case studies and photographs; in other words, you will like it! A downloadable version of the guidelines is available on the Web, www.energysmartschools.gov or on a free CD-ROM by calling 800-DOE-3732.

Copyright 2002 The American Institute of Architects. All rights reserved.