The new SABIS® International School in Runda, Nairobi has achieved a Green Star Africa-Kenya PEB v1 Design Rating and is also being presented as a case study at the World Green Building.
The school which offers offers a world class education to students from kindergarten to Grade 12 within a vibrant, multicultural community that is committed to academic excellence began construction on the state-of-the-art campus, in 2016 and completed in 2018.
As the first Green Star certified school in Kenya, the aim was to positively impact the project’s design and construction costs, asset value, operating costs, and workplace productivity and user health. The school is conveniently located near the Northern Bypass in Kiambu County.
Features of SABIS® International School
It was developed by the SABIS® Network, a global network of schools that dates back to 1886 and currently educates over 70,000 students in 20 countries on 5 continents. Architects on the project were Boogertman + Partners, and the green building AP (accredited professional) team comprised WEB Limited, a Kenyan based sustainable development consultancy and co-founding member of the Kenya Green Building Society, in collaboration with Solid Green Consulting.
According to Elizabeth Wangeci Chege of WEB Limited, being very close to the Equator with no extremes in weather, conditions lent themselves to passive design; the soil is conducive to plant growth and biodiversity; and there is an abundance of rain for harvesting.
Resource efficiency
Taking into consideration of resource efficiency, the classroom blocks were oriented north/south with openings, particularly in the study areas, that do not face east or west. Heat gain from outside surfaces was limited by merging soft and hard landscaping and, in the site planning, by ensuring that paved spaces do not bounce heat back into the internal spaces. Air pollution was also mitigated by ensuring that the school bus parking areas, which are planted with young trees, are oriented to prevent exhaust fumes from entering the buildings.
Moreover, natural lighting and ventilation were modelled and optimised by increasing the height of the windows specified in the prototype design. Together with the selection and procurement of low-VOC finishes – such as paints, adhesives and sealants – to ensure that the children are not exposed to toxins, this ensured a significant improvement in the school’s Indoor Environmental Quality.
Solar water heaters were installed to reduce energy consumption, and a modular solar PV system was designed for optional adoption – with the aim of providing panels for classrooms in the next phase of the development, to cut back on consumption and reduce operational costs.
Electricity and water sub-metering was provided for each block with smart meters connected to the BMS to monitor and manage consumption, and to offer a learning resource for the school children and their carers. The school was also the first in Kenya to install 100% LED lights in all spaces, thus gaining an additional Green Star Innovation point.
To treat the sewage emanating from the facility, a membrane bio reactor (MBR) – a process of membrane-based technology – was provided. In this process, the excess sludge does not require separate digestion and the quantity of sludge generated is minimal. This avoids the cumbersome sludge disposal exercise which needs more manual labour and land area.
