Schools in the face of climate change

As summers get increasingly hotter, one scenario seems to be becoming more widespread: schools are closing their doors, not for the vacation but because it’s simply too hot to learn. This situation reveals the scale of an underestimated challenge. In France, half of all schools date from before 1975, a time when energy efficiency was not a priority. In the United States, the average age of a school building is 49 years, with 38% built before 1970. These figures reveal a disturbing reality: millions study every day in buildings that were not designed for today’s climate.

How can we ensure continued education and the well-being of students and teachers when classrooms become ovens? In the face of this emergency, one thing is clear: it’s no longer enough for the school of tomorrow just to be “comfortable”. It must be resilient, and capable of adapting to the climate, energy and health challenges of our time. It must be based on planning ahead rather than enduring damage, protecting users rather than leaving them exposed. 

Climate resilience: planning for future hazards

The resilient school starts with a global approach to heat management. Gone are the days when you could make do with basic insulation and energy-intensive air conditioning. Right from the design stage, today’s schools need to incorporate solutions that maintain optimal learning conditions, even when the outdoor temperature is rising.

Adapting infrastructure to the climate has become vital

This resilience is achieved through a revolution in construction materials and systems. Saint-Gobain solutions such as EnveoVent are a perfect illustration: these ventilated and insulated load-bearing walls, manufactured off-site in a factory, allow a complete rethink of the approach to the building envelope. With EnveoVent Duo the principle goes even further, with outdoor and indoor insulation that is both waterproof and airtight, maximizing performance in a compact footprint.

Smart solar protection is another way to achieve resilience. Cool-Lite Xtreme 61/29 glazing from Saint-Gobain Glass blocks more than 70% of the incoming heat while letting in 61% of the natural light. This balance keeps classrooms cooler in a natural way, without sacrificing visual comfort. 

This global approach fundamentally transforms school design: it plans for weather hazards rather than reacting to them, guaranteeing a stable learning environment whatever the conditions outdoors.

Urgent renovation: modernizing the existing building stock without losing time

While resilient new build is one challenge, renovating existing schools is another, and it’s even more urgent. Faced with schools that are mostly aging and ill-suited to current climate challenges, the question is no longer whether to renovate, but how to do it as quickly and efficiently as possible. This is all the more true given the many constraints involved: minimizing the duration of the work to avoid disrupting the school year, guaranteeing the safety of students and staff, optimizing the often limited space available, and controlling costs in a tight budgetary context. So how can these seemingly contradictory demands be reconciled?

The solution lies in the industrialization of the building and off-site construction. With Saint-Gobain’s kitting solutions, all the parts required for renovation can be prepared in the workshop. Walls, partitions, linings, ceilings: everything is prefabricated to match the exact measurements of the school, factory-tested, then delivered ready to install.

Is building fast the same as building better?

This paradigm shift is revolutionizing school building sites. Where a conventional renovation would require several months of disruptive work, off-site construction means that it can be carried out during the school vacation, in just a few weeks. Here again, EnveoVent prefabricated modules are a perfect example of this philosophy: complete units incorporating insulation, ventilation and finishing, installed in record time. The Almont school complex in Melun, near Paris, provides a practical illustration of this efficiency. This 1970s building underwent a full thermal renovation using the EnveoVent Duo solution. The result was 1,200 m² of façade modernized in just three months. 

Far from sacrificing quality for the sake of speed, this industrial approach actually improves it. Off-site construction in the workshop allows for a level of quality control that is difficult to achieve on a conventional building site. Every part is optimized, every joint is mastered, and performance is checked at every stage.

A school with every comfort

While thermal management and climate resilience are the first pillars of the school of the future, they’re not the only ones. A truly efficient school must create an environment where all the senses contribute to learning: that means thermal, visual and acoustic comfort.

The invisible issue of acoustic comfort

With overcrowded classrooms, noisy outdoor environments and poor acoustics in the canteen, students and staff are increasingly exposed to prolonged noise pollution. For the youngest pupils, this overexposure to noise has an impact on educational success. When noise is everywhere, it can cause delays in language acquisition as well as difficulty in concentrating, not to mention stress. In theory, classroom noise should not exceed 50 dB. In reality, sound levels are all too often well above this threshold.*

So how do you deal with this ambient hubbub, which is detrimental to clarity of speech? A past master in the “art of silence”, Saint-Gobain has developed materials with proven acoustic performance. Anti-noise solutions include triple glazing, of course, but also insulating panels that absorb sound from wall to wall, such as Ecophon Akusto™ Wall C Extra Bass, specially created for classrooms, or suspended ceilings such as those in the Acoustichoc® range from Eurocoustic.

Another criterion for effective teaching is the air quality. By renewing the ambient air on a regular basis, the cognitive abilities of children aged 10 to 12 increase significantly. A study of 100 elementary school in the United States revealed that pupils scored 2.9% higher in math and 2.7% higher in languages when ventilation was increased by 1 liter per second per person*. Yet many schools still suffer from poor ventilation, with the added problem of potential sources of damp and mold. One of the major challenges in schools is thus to provide students with healthier air, not only to promote learning, but also to limit the spread of viruses.

Solutions from Placo® and Gyproc® (plasterboard, ceiling tiles, etc.) using Activ’Air® technology developed by Saint-Gobain help purify indoor air by absorbing some volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as formaldehyde, which can be found in the fiberboard of furniture. Combined with good ventilation, they promote better air quality, and in turn, better learning!

So in fact, the school of the future already exists. It relies on smart materials and bioclimatic design. It is based on planning ahead rather than reacting, protecting users rather than leaving them exposed, adapting rather than enduring damage. This resilient school responds to the immediate threats of heatwaves, energy shortages and air quality while preparing for the future. It is modular, scalable and capable of accommodating new educational uses in an optimal setting. This new-generation school reconciles environmental performance, user well-being and economic efficiency. It proves that it's possible to build and renovate in a different way – faster, better and for longer.

* Allen J.G. et al. (2017), Foundations for Student Success: How School Buildings Influence Student Health, Thinking and Performance, Harvard, T.H. Chan School of Public Health.