The following features define a high performance school. A high performance school is healthy . High indoor environmental quality is essential. The significant amount of time that students and teachers spend inside schools during the course of their educational career, combined with children's increased susceptibility to indoor pollutants underlines the importance of healthy schools. A high performance school is thermally, visually, and acoustically comfortable .
Comfort includes thermal comfort, visual comfort and acoustic comfort.
Thermal comfort means that teachers, students and administrators should neither be hot or cold as they teach and learn. Visual comfort means that quality lighting makes visual tasks, such as reading and following classroom presentations, easier. Daylight and electric light are integrated, and glare is eliminated. Acoustic comfort means teachers and students can hear one another. Loud ventilation systems are eliminated, and the schools minimizes outdoor and indoor noise from reaching the classroom.