December 29, 2006—One of the most environmentally friendly high school buildings in the United States, Desert Edge High School, uses an interactive touch screen kiosk to get a message across to students – The school you are in is special and you have a better learning environment as a result.
The environmentally friendly building is only the fifth high school in the world to receive a Silver LEED certification from the US Green Building Council. It is 28 percent more efficient then typical high schools and will save Agua Fria Union High School District more then $58,000 in energy costs a year. Some of the schools green features include the use of recycled material throughout, high efficiency central cooling and heating plant and the use of low volatile organic compound (VOC) sealants, adhesives and paints.
In order to get the word out about how the school contributes to a better learning environment, the school has a custom developed GreenTouchscreen educational kiosk in the lobby.
In order to demonstrate to students that their building is special, the GreenTouchscreen displays data on electricity, water and CO2 use and savings. These savings are then displayed in both standard values and they are broken down into every day concepts such as the number of minutes in a shower for water use. Students can also view the operation of the high performance heating and cooling systems in real time, use the interactive building directory, learn about sustainability and even get bus route schedule and stop information.
GreenTouchscreen is a product of Quality Attributes Software. For more information, visit the Web site.
