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Green Health: Building Sustainable Schools for Healthy Kids Green Health BUILDING SUSTAINABLE SCHOOLS FOR HEALTHY KIDS A Workshop Co-sponsored by the National Collaborative for Childhood Obesity Research and the National Academy of Environmental Design In partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council Center for Green Schools Instead, environmental factors that influence when, where, and how much people eat and drink and how physically active they are must be engaged at a population scale to promote healthy behaviors. Introduction Role of Research indicates that environmental design at multiple spatial scales, Environmental from regional land use patterns to aspects of interior or graphic design, can Design within influence social norms and default behaviors related to dietary choices and daily physical activity. Development and dissemination of multidisciplinary Childhood Obesity environmental design research focused on childhood obesity prevention offers Prevention the potential for a valuable suite of new health promotion tools. However, successful at-scale implementation of health-oriented built environment A growing body of evidence clearly design strategies will depend on collaboration between public health and the demonstrates that alterations in design and building industries. One clear opportunity for building such a partnership lies in the many synergies individual behaviors alone are not between the environmental design objectives of childhood obesity prevention and those of the sustainability/green building movement. Focusing on sufficient to change the course of shared goals, such as community design that reduces automobile reliance and promotes active transportation, offers the prospect of a coordinated “Green the childhood obesity epidemic. Health” approach to built environment-oriented research. This is an attractive prospect given the growth and influence of non-profit advocacy groups such as Contents the U.S. Green Building Council and the green building industry as a whole. Green Health: Building Sustainable Schools for Healthy Children Introduction....................................................................................................................................5 Why Focus on the Schools represent an ideal focus for primary development of Green Health Session 1: School Context and Neighborhood Connection .....................................8 Design of School environmental design research focused on addressing both childhood obesity Session 2: Green and Healthy School Buildings ......................................................... 14 Environments? and sustainability. School facilities are pivotal community resources and Session 3: School Playgrounds and Gardens ............................................................... 20 a central part of each family and child’s daily life. They are mandated and positioned to help form social norms and default behaviors such as those Session 4: Translating Innovation and Research Into Practice ........................... 26 related to health behaviors. However, comprehensive research specifically Session 5: Innovative Tools for Green Health Design Research ......................... 32 addressing the physical design of school environments is limited. Session 6: Increasing Capacity for Green Health Research and Practice ....... 38 On October 27-28, 2011, the National Collaborative for Childhood Obesity Appendices ................................................................................................................................... 43 Research and the National Academy of Environmental Design, in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council Center for Green Schools, hosted Green School Context and Neighborhood Connection 4 5 Health: Building Sustainable Schools for Healthy Kids. This workshop (www.nccor.org/greenhealthworkshop) used an interdisciplinary case-study approach to examine how environmental design strategies at multiple scales can be better used to promote physical activity and healthy eating in school environments. The workshop also explored how childhood obesity prevention can be integrated into school-based sustainability and green building initiatives and frameworks. Workshop Participants included designers, urban planners, public health experts, and Participants and representatives from multiple federal agencies. Through presentations and Objectives discussions, participants: • Examined how environmental design strategies at multiple spatial scales— neighborhood, school building, and schoolyard—can be used to promote physical activity and healthy eating. • Discussed emerging tools for health behavior assessment and environmental measurement within school-focused obesity prevention research and examined training and capacity needs. • Identified specific opportunities for integrating childhood obesity prevention, environmental sustainability, and green building research and practice. Structure and The 2-day invited workshop was organized into two main sections: Green Health: Building Sustainable Schools for Healthy Children Methods • An examination and showcasing of school design strategies at varying spatial scales, from land use to interior design, that can be manipulated to promote adoption of healthy eating and physical activity among children (Sessions 1 through 4). • An examination of new tools for green health design research as well as advances in inter-disciplinary training opportunities to increase green health research and practice (Sessions 5 through 7). The workshop concluded with a session in which participants discussed next steps to advance the field. Introduction 6 7 School Context and Neighborhood Connection 48% 13% 1 of children of children walked or biked walk or bike to to school in 1969. school today. Promoting walking and biking to school as a core School Siting and Neighborhood children could walk or bike to school. impetuS for the Development Design: Historical Context and component of active community lifestyles is a major Even as late at 1969, 48% of children of the epA Siting guiDelineS Development of EPA Guidelines walked or biked to school. focus of both obesity prevention and sustainability In recent years, concerns about However, this model of the environment, health, traffic research and advocacy. Designing and building schools and “neighborhood school” began to congestion, pollution, and loss of associated facilities is one of the change as families moved out of community social cohesion, have led School location and quality of multi- • Release of the School Siting largest investments a community can the city and into new suburban urban planners, designers, educators, modal transportation infrastructure Guidelines developed by the make. The myriad decisions involved communities. Decisions about health officials, and communities to are well recognized as important U.S. Environmental Protection reflect a community’s educational what kind of schools to build rethink the physical and functional determinants of rates of active Agency (Matthew Dalbey, PhD; U.S. priorities, as well as its fiscal, social, and where to build them shifted relationship of schools within their transportation to school within Environmental Protection Agency). economic, environmental, and health to reflect emerging desires for surrounding communities. Moving Green Health: Building Sustainable Schools for Healthy Children communities. However, design- • Analysis of trends and determi- goals. In the early 20th century, desegregated educational facilities back to a neighborhood-based model oriented research and tools that can nants in active transportation influential planners such as Clarence as well as efficiencies of scale within is garnering increasing attention, promote green and healthy school (Noreen McDonald, PhD; University Perry advocated that neighborhoods educational facilities. The result is but executing this model will require design at a regional and neighborhood of North Carolina, Chapel Hill). should be the basis for city growth. our current landscape—abandoned consideration of many complex and scale and that are specifically tailored He defined neighborhood size based central city neighborhood schools, interrelated issues. to address the needs of decision- • Application of health-oriented new large schools built on lots on on a 5-minute walking radius from a The U.S. Environmental Protection makers, city planners, and urban design tools, such as the Active the periphery of communities, center that would be designated for Agency (EPA) has developed designers remain underdeveloped. Design Guidelines, at an urban and reliance on cars and buses for community uses, such as schools. voluntary school siting guidelines design scale by private design transport. Schools have lost their SeSSion 1 of the workshop In those early decades, to help local school districts and firms (Jack Robbins, Perkins + physical siting at the hub of the highlighted three examples of neighborhoods and schools were communities evaluate environmental Will Architects). community, which limits their recent innovations in regional- interconnected. Schools at the and public health factors in their historical function as a public space and neighborhood-scale centers of communities posed few decision-making about whether to for recreation and learning for the environmental design: transportation challenges because renovate an existing school or build whole community. 8 9 a new school on a new or existing types of environmental and public The increase in women working a school. However, ensuring
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