Valley View celebrates grand opening of first green school in the North

When the new Valley View Public School opened in September 2007, Greater Sudbury became home to the first Green School in Northern Ontario. Students marked the historic occasion at a special open house celebration Wednesday, when they welcomed the school board officials, architect and contractor who worked to make their dream school a reality.

“Valley View Public School, Rainbow District School Board’s first new school in 40 years, is a model for sustainable development as a high performance green school,” said Board Chair Judy Hunda.

“This school is a shining example of Rainbow District School Board’s commitment to sustainability.”

Rainbow District School Board is realizing significant savings in energy consumption with the green features incorporated into the building.  The facility is expected to operate at half the energy cost of a typical school.

“In this day and age, where climate change and greenhouse gases have become household words, we need to do all that we can to reduce our environmental footprint,” said Hunda.

“We are instilling a culture of conservation amongst our youngest citizens and this will have a powerful impact on their future, the future of our planet and the future of generations to come.”

Ameresco Canada oversaw the $15 million construction project on behalf of Rainbow District School Board.

What makes a green school?

The new Valley View Public School incorporates national Go Green environmental certification principles for resource consumption, waste management, building materials, the interior environment and occupant awareness.
Good acoustics, lighting, thermal comfort and air quality in the 65,000 sq. foot facility is reducing operating expenses, protecting the natural environment and improving the health and productivity of students and staff, while lowering energy consumption.

The architect and sustainable consultant designed the school with a north-south orientation, maximizing windows on the north and south faces of the building. Sun screening devices and glass are used to optimize the amount of natural light in the school, obtain solar heat gain in the winter and avoid undesirable solar heat gain in the summer.

This approach has many benefits. It provides a learning environment lit with natural light, reduces the need for artificial lighting, takes advantage of passive solar heating during the winter months and shades the hot sun of the summer.

When rooms are not in use, occupancy sensors integrated with the artificial lighting systems automatically shut lights off. This type of lighting creates significant energy savings.

The use of geothermal energy systems in the new school provides four units of energy from the ground for every unit of energy purchased from conventional sources. This efficiency is unequalled by other conventional heating and cooling systems. Geothermal systems heat and cool the school by tapping into the relatively constant temperature of the earth below the frost line, at significant energy savings.

The building has radiant floor heating. Cooled/tempered air is delivered to classrooms using displacement ventilation concepts. Displacement ventilation provides fresh and tempered (cool) air to classrooms at floor level.  Displacement ventilation systems typically use 100 percent outdoor air. As a result, air pollutants generated within the building are removed at the source and are not re-circulated. The displacement ventilation system improves the indoor environment.

The water reuse system in the school conserves water use and demonstrates sustainability to students. A wetland biofilter remediates sanitary waste from waterless urinals and low volume flush toilets, diverting approximately 70 percent of the remediated water to re-circulate in toilets throughout the school.

A number of additional sustainable features have been incorporated into the building, including the use of building products with recycled content.