Creating a Climate-Resilient Blueprint for Schools
How do educational infrastructures signal their commitment to climate resilience? By creating schools that secure the future and protect their students. Here’s how climate-resilient schools are responding to the needs of the times.
The Vision for Resilient Schools
A climate-resilient school is designed to withstand and recover from harsh weather events while minimizing disruptions to education and supporting vulnerable communities by serving as a temporary shelter. These schools have upgrades that adapt to climate risks, create safe spaces from natural disasters, and reduce their reliance on traditional energy sources, which can contribute to long-term economic benefits.
School districts across the U.S. face the challenge of climate change’s most invasive impacts ever. A 2022 U.S. Government Accountability Office report found over half of public school districts were located in counties that faced major disasters from 2017 to 2019. Worsening severe weather events—such as tornadoes, wildfires, hurricanes, and floods—have pushed decision-makers to rethink how educational buildings should be developed and renovated to answer the call of the times.
In addition to increasing safety, there are other health and educational benefits to making schools climate-resilient.
Concentration. An increase in carbon dioxide levels can decrease kids’ attention spans by 5%—as much as skipping breakfast. Naturally, cleaner air from purifiers and better heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems help reverse that effect.
Academic performance. Cooler environments also help children perform better. In a study of 75,000 high schoolers in New York, researchers found they were more likely to fail a test on a 90°F day than a 75°F day.
Well-being. Properly maintained plumbing ensures continuous access to water if the school becomes a shelter, and using heat-resilient materials ensures no volatile organic compounds are released into the indoor and outdoor environment that can impact air quality.
Expanding Resiliency Beyond Schools
The infrastructure strategies used in climate-resilient schools can and should extend to other buildings to create a more resilient community.
Residential buildings. Apartments and condominiums can be equipped with a microgrid system to stay operational despite main-grid power outages.
Commercial offices. Improved ventilation and climate-control systems can reduce heat-related health issues caused by elevated indoor temperatures.
Healthcare facilities. Reinforced structures and backup energy systems are crucial for hospitals and clinics to remain functional, especially in disaster response situations.
Transportation infrastructure. Bus and transit hubs can use elevated designs and durable materials like precast concrete or recycled steel to withstand flooding and ensure people can still commute during climate emergencies.
Schools Realizing the Vision
Effective planning begins with assessing the school’s exposure to risks. Several educational institutions have taken a proactive approach not just for immediate response but also toward sustainable climate resilience strategies, serving as prime examples for others.
Hawai’i Preparatory Academy (HPA)
Schools can become temporary shelters for communities, as in the case of HPA, which experienced a major wildfire in 2021. Following that event, the school invested in enhanced communication systems to help connect emergency responders to school leaders.
Doing so ensures those authorities know when they’ll need to prepare to shelter more than their students. Additionally, it helps plan for local resilience with businesses, emergency services, town officials, and more.
In Washington State, increasing wildfire events pushed the Bellingham school district to seek aid for improving the health and safety of students and staff. The district was awarded $300,000 from the Environmental Protection Agency, which enabled it to conduct HVAC assessments and make vital updates.
The schools also installed indoor and outdoor air quality sensors to track the conditions of both and created training and wildfire response plans. By doing so, the district actively pursues the mitigation of wildfire smoke on occupants’ health and learning.
The school district rebuilt River Grove Elementary School in Oregon as a climate-resilient school. It has become America’s first K–12 school to utilize microgrid energy, ensuring continued operation even during power outages. Alongside an upgraded HVAC system, this energy feature makes it an ideal refuge for the community when extreme conditions or natural disasters strike.
International Efforts
Outside of the U.S., organizations are also contributing to efforts to ensure the resilience of educational institutions. In Mozambique—a cyclone-prone country—the World Bank has supported the national government by furnishing over 600 classrooms with climate-resilient features. In Colombia, each public school was surveyed to understand its structural vulnerabilities in response to the country’s frequent earthquakes.
In 2023, 40 schools in the South Pacific islands of Vanuatu were also reconstructed. Since Vanuatu experiences recurring cyclones, earthquakes, and rising sea levels, educational institutions have been updated to meet higher structural safety standards, benefiting 5,000 individuals, including teachers and students. Becoming more durable means schools can save money on repairs and avoid creating more eco-unfriendly waste and material demand.
Climate Change-Proofing Communities
Climate-resilient buildings are no longer science fiction—they are an immediate necessity to address the challenges of the rapidly changing climate. As demonstrated by pioneer schools, investing in infrastructure that addresses pressing needs and withstands recurring extreme weather events is what communities need.
By enlarging the scope and application of these strategies into residential, commercial, healthcare, and transportation infrastructure, a sustainable future may be within reach. For architects and designers, this represents a challenge—and an opportunity—to incorporate resilience into every project.
About the Author
Evelyn Long
Freelance writer
Evelyn Long is an experienced interior design writer that has been featured on the National Association of Realtors and DecorMatters sites. She specializes in improving workplaces for a diverse and modern workforce. She is also the editor-in-chief of Renovated Magazine, where she writes interior design advice for homeowners.