The Northeast CHPS Verified Program (NE-CHPS) has been designed to provide guidance and verification for new school projects, renovations, and new schools on existing campuses to achieve high performance goals.
NE-CHPS Version 4.0: This August, the Northeast Collaborative for High Performance Schools (NE-CHPS) criteria graduated from version 3.2 to version 4.0, which entails significant upgrades to sections including: Zero Energy Capable, Biophilic & Responsive Design, Safer Schools By Design, and Low Radon. It also includes a brand new section: Design for Adaptation & Resilience, adapted from US-CHPS. The update also includes minor upgrades such as the update of standards from IECC 2015 to IECC 2018 and from ASHRAE 62.1 and 90.1 from 2016 to 2019, the removal of the operations report card, and more linked resources. See here for a summary of changes.
While version 4 is now active, there will be a 6 month concurrency period; NE-CHPS 3.2 is still valid until February 4, 2022.
NE-CHPS version 4.0 is available here.
NE-CHPS Version 3.2: New for this version of NE-CHPS, all criteria, including prerequisites, have been assigned points. This does not change the nature of any item marked as a prerequisite – they must still be pursued by all projects as indicated in the criteria. By assigning points to prerequisites, it allows for a more accurate accounting of the relative importance and level of effort associated with each individual section. For example, prerequisites account for nearly a third of all points in Indoor Environmental Quality. Without assigning points to prerequisites, that section seems relatively less important than it truly is.
Following an extensive stakeholder engagement process, NE-CHPS v3.2 was released in April, 2019. The purpose of this update is to ensure that NE-CHPS sets a high standard for energy-efficient and healthy learning environments while also streamlining the process for design teams and school districts. The new criteria increases the energy baseline from the 2012 IECC to the 2015 IECC, amongst other edits made to the energy efficiency prerequisite. The acoustics section also underwent major changes to streamline the design and testing process as well as the documentation requirements to ensure high quality acoustics. New to this version of the criteria is a credit for biophilic design. This credit seeks to strengthen the student's connection between the indoor learning environment and the natural world beyond the walls of the school building.
For more information on the update, please see our introductory webinar here.
Watch a brief introductory video to NE-CHPS below: