Opening the Door to Greener Classrooms
More than 14 million American children spend their days in schools that are substandard or dangerous
During an unprecedented student population boom between 1950 and 2000, school districts became reliant on portable classrooms. But what was an interim solution still remains. Over 300,000 unhealthy, unsafe, trailer-like temporary portable classrooms—some over forty years old—still exist in America. 322 billion dollars is needed to repair these schools, but with our current economic difficulties, finding funding for these aging schools is rare. So classrooms remain cramped, musty, dirty, and dingy—none of which are conducive to learning. Fourteen million school days were missed because of poor air quality alone. And low-income children suffer disproportionately.
The Green Schoolhouse Series is a unique collaboration bringing together corporations, foundations, school districts, communities, municipalities, media outlets, and volunteers to gift high-performance, environmentally sustainable, LEED® Platinum designed green schoolhouses to Title 1, low income public schools. The inaugural schoolhouse, a safari-themed schoolhouse built for Roadrunner Elementary in Phoenix, Arizona, is on track to be the first ever LEED® Platinum designed K-12 school in the world built entirely by volunteers. It is the first of 18 schools nationwide to be part of The Green Schoolhouse Series. The goals are to have net zero energy and zero water use, with a non-toxic interior environment and healthier students. The Green Schoolhouse Series schools will bring in the community to meetings, support the school district, and teach sustainability.
With green schoolhouses, students will be healthier—with a projected 5% increase in attendance and a 9% decrease in asthma-related absentees. And while learning through a green curriculum, math progression is projected to improve 26% faster and reading progression is projected to improve 20% faster. What’s more, there is a reduction of 33% in energy use and 30% in water use, saving our schools muchneeded finances.
Hager Companies is a proud sponsor of The Green Schoolhouse Series. We will be providing the schools with hinges, cylindrical locks, deadbolts, exit devices, door closers, protective trim, flushbolts, door stops, silencers, thresholds, and weatherstripping products.
“The green schoolhouses will be built using donated top of the line innovative products like Hager’s entire line of door hardware”
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Several Hager products can help a project earn LEED® points, as outlined below:
MR Credit 4.1: Recycled Content: 10%
Projects can earn 1 point by using the following product:
Locksets = 11%
MR Credit 4.2: Recycled Content: 20%
Projects can earn 2 points by using the following products:
Aluminum Screw-on Weatherstripping = 20%
Aluminum Sliding Door Track = 20%
Aluminum Thresholds = 20%
Flushbolts = 27%
Steel Butt Hinges = 27%
Steel Sliding Door Track = 27%
Brass Protection Plates = 29%
Floor and Wall Stops = 40%
Brass and Stainless Steel Butt Hinges = 61%
Stainless Steel Continuous Hinges = 61%
Stainless Steel Protection Plates = 61%
Stainless Steel Push and Pull Plates = 61%
MR Credit 5.1 Regional Materials: Extracted and Manufactured
Regionally
The following products are manufactured in Montgomery, Alabama, in the postal code 36105. If any of these products are used, and the project site is within 500 miles of postal code 36105, 1 credit can be earned:
Butt Hinges
Protection Plates
Push and Pull Plates
Thresholds and Weatherstripping Products
Roton Continuous Geared Hinges
Hager Companies has had a 160-year track record in the door and hardware industry and a longstanding tradition of environmental awareness.
“At Hager Companies, we are proud to know that in some small way, we are helping to open the door to a brighter future for American school children by providing hardware for more and more of our nation’s schools,” said Josh Hager, Group Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing.
For more information on Hager’s partnership with The Green Schoolhouse Series or how Hager products can help achieve LEED® points, please visit our Green Initiatives page online.
