Procuring greener schools

Selecting the right team

The selected team should be familiar with sustainable school concepts. During design, construction, commissioning and handover, consultants (and builders) need to have experience in the design and delivery of green buildings (or at least demonstrate an understanding and willingness to learn quickly). If any one project team member does not participate fully and enthusiastically then the ability to deliver a cost-effective green building is compromised.

Crucial to the delivery of a green building is the adoption of an integrated design process. It is this process by which all of the design variables that affect one another are considered together and resolved in an optimal fashion. Often referred to as holistic design, it looks at the entire building as a whole with the emphasis on integrating the different aspects of the building design.

For example daylighting, natural ventilation and water conservation cut across multiple disciplines. Daylighting in particular affects virtually every design discipline including architecture (building envelope and orientation), mechanical (reduced internal heat loads and modified fabric loads), electrical (lighting design and lighting controls), structural (floor-to-floor heights and external shading) and interiors (interior colours and reflectivity).

To assist schools in selecting the right team the following guidance documents are available to download:

• Independent Schools Victoria Guideline 1: Architects ESD Brief – sample clauses to include in your tender documents to consultants
• Independent Schools Victoria Guideline 2: Sample ESD Interview Questions – examples of questions to ask during an interview and some expected answers or issues to consider in evaluating proposals.