Green Technology Home

By Ariel Dekovic

Relocatable and portable classrooms are often thought of as a necessary but not ideal part of the school building landscape. Communities and schools across the nation have turned to portable, factory-built buildings as a fast solution to critical housing and classroom shortages. However, as necessary as they may be, portable buildings have often gotten a bad rap.

“The main problem with portable classrooms is while they are designed and built to be temporary, they rarely are,” said Bill Orr, executive director of the Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS), a national non-profit organization with a mission to make schools a better place to learn. “However, attitudes are changing. The new driver for prefabricated classrooms is the need for more cost-effective, time-efficient delivery methods, and we need make sure we hold these buildings to the same high performance standard as traditional school buildings.”

Schools and districts turn to relocatable and modular solutions when school populations change rapidly, when classroom needs or budget limitations preclude a traditional stick-built design approach, or when old school buildings must be rehabbed and students are left without classroom space. “We want to make room for prefabricated classrooms in the green school movement,” said Orr.

At last December’s Green California Schools Summit, the Collaborative for High Performance Schools introduced the CHPS Verified Program for Prefabricated Classrooms, a program aimed as creating a new market for high performance, healthy, green prefab classrooms.

“CHPS’ new Prefab Classroom program expands the CHPS Verified program to provide a certification for high performance modular and relocatable classrooms,” said Orr. “This certification allows for providers to market a ‘pre-certified’ model to customers, and customers will be able to easily purchase a model that meets high performance standards.”

The program has three goals: first, to provide a way for more students to learn in high performance classrooms by providing a product label that clearly designates high performance building status for qualifying prefab classrooms; second, to get prefab manufacturers recognition for providing healthy, high performance classroom spaces; and third, to provide a streamlined process for product recognition to reduce the burden on the manufacturer and customer. .

Since the program became available, three manufacturers have registered models with CHPS and are working through the program: American Modular Systems, M Space and VUMA.

The program grew out of CHPS’ High Performance Relocatable Classroom volume, which is part of CHPS’ well-known Best Practices Manual for high performance schools. The volume described high performance design best practices for relocatable classrooms and provided a specification for a high performance classroom based on the model specification provided by the State of California. In 2009, CHPS updated the volume and expanded it to include the Criteria for High Performance Relocatable Classrooms, which would allow providers and customers to create classrooms based on their priorities.

This was similar to the process of delivering a high performance traditional, stick-built school building. It gave some flexibility to providers and customers to determine the final product while still meeting the basic prerequisites for high performance.

Marketing Roundtable Outcomes

In the fall of 2010, CHPS held six roundtables for relocatable and modular providers and interested constituents to develop a set of recommendations for the marketing and education portions of the CHPS Verified program for relocatable and modular classrooms. The first goal of the roundtables was to create a common language and framework for a green prefab program and market. The second goal was to, within the limits of the existing CHPS Criteria for Relocatable and Modular Classrooms, design a verified program that works best for manufacturers, distributors and customers. The following recommendations were developed as a result of the marketing roundtables.

Recommendation 1:
Use a Term that has a Common Meaning for Providers and Customers
This program includes two different types of factory-built buildings – relocatable, portable-style temporary classrooms, and permanent modular buildings. The group voted to use the term “prefabricated” or “prefab” classrooms, which has several advantages. First, many government agencies, organizations and companies already use the term. Second, the term has very positive connotations in the design field and residential market. Third, it is a rather new term, so it has some “freshness” associated with it.

Recommendation 2: Provide Recognition Levels
Manufacturers and customers want choice. The group recommended that CHPS provide “levels” in the high performance relocatable/modular program, to allow for superior models to distinguish themselves, similar to the CHPS Verified Leader level, which requires both a qualitatively and quantitatively superior building. A specific point level and required credits will be determined by CHPS at a later date.

Recommendation 3: Segment the Audience for Education
Much like CHPS’ original approach to high performance building design, it was recommended that CHPS should serve as the information clearinghouse for potential high performance relocatable and modular customers.

Recommendation 4: Major Themes for District Education
The group offered several major themes for schools and districts on high performance pre-fabricated classrooms: First, the benefits are the same as benefits for traditional high performance new construction, with the additional benefits of reduced delivery time and cost, minimal soft costs, reduced unknowns and pre-engineered so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel/think through approaches.

A second theme that CHPS has to deal with concerns cost. The whole classroom is an entirely different product. The key is that customers have to understand that a price increase is not just an increase in materials.

Thirdly, the current economic state prevents customers from investing in high performance. A life cycle analysis of the building will allow for better understanding of how districts will get a greater return on investment. In contrast, the performance of stick-built buildings can’t be predicted as reliably.

Recommendation 5: Make Responsibility for the Tasks in Each Prerequisite/Credit Clear to Customer
Several of the prerequisites and credits in the Criteria for Relocatable Classrooms require on-site action by the building provider. These tasks, including commissioning and acoustics, are separate from the credits that must be undertaken by the school in order to receive CHPS Verified recognition for their building. The scorecard should clearly indicate the responsible party for completing various aspects of prerequisites and credits on-site. It was also recommended that a “chain of custody” document be created for each model type to identify responsibility of tasks.

Recommendation 6: CHPS should certify a base model and allow-for add-ons at a reduced review cost
One of the essential features of relocatable and modular classrooms is their customizability. CHPS has to account for this while still being able to certify some standard products. To this end, CHPS will certify a base model, and allow providers to include “add-ons” at a reduced review cost. Providers should also be able to certify additional models.

What’s Next for CHPS Prefab Classrooms?

Once these manufacturers complete the process, and their classroom models are approved, the product will be listed on the CHPS High Performance Product Database, so customers will have an easy way to download the scorecard and other information.

Those interested in learning more about this new program will be able to connect with CHPS staff in education sessions and the Expo at the upcoming Green California Schools Summit, which will take place October 17-18 at the Pasadena Convention Center.

Ariel Dekovic is senior programs and communications manager for the Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS)

Copyright © 2008, Green Technology. All rights reserved.