This just crossed my desk:

A free 1 hour webinar “Sustainable Schools:  Design, Construction & Operations” will be held by ED&C magazine on Thursday, May 26th, 2011  at 3pm EDT.

How One School District Changed Behaviors and Buildings to Achieve the Nation’s First Net Zero School

Warren County Public Schools in Bowling Green, KY is the home of the nation’s first Net Zero school building. The district, that grows by about 400 students annually, has built six new schools since 2006. Each building has served as an energy efficiency milestone as officials have honed designs to achieve a 77,000-square foot building that operates at 18 kBTUs per square foot. The limited energy consumption coupled with the revenue from solar panel production allows the elementary school to operate without cost. The district designed the building to be a hands-on energy museum for the students to continue learning about energy.   The Net Zero School milestone is just one of many accomplishments of WCPS that has also offset $6 million in energy costs since 2003 by changing behaviors and mindsets.

• Examine how the Warren County Public Schools district changed mindsets and offset $6 million in energy costs in less than eight years
• Evaluate how the school district honed its building designs to achieve a school capable of producing as much energy as it consumes to achieve the nation’s first Net Zero school building
• Analyze how the district is taking what is has learned and passing it on to its students through children’s Energy Team initiatives and challenges
• Define the new methods the district had enacted to enhance its massive energy-savings initiatives, buildings and programs

Go here to register.

The program qualifies (with certain requirements) for:

• 1 GBCI CE Hours towards the LEED Credential Maintenance Program; and
• 1.0 AIA learning units

More about the Net Zero school can be found in this post on the Biofriendly Blog. 

Photo: (c) freephoto.com via Creative Commons license.