Dive Brief:

• The Northwest Local School District in Cincinnati has awarded a Skanska-led joint venture the $77 million contract to replace three elementary schools and renovate five high schools.
• Skanska holds a 70% share in the joint venture with Cincinnati-based Megen Construction, which makes Skanska's portion of the contract worth $54 million.
• Skanska will build the three new elementary schools according to LEED Platinum standards and expects all construction activity to be completed by August 2018.

Dive Insight:

In January, the Washington, DC, Department of General Services also awarded Skanska a massive school construction contract for the $72 million modernization of the District’s largest elementary school, Lafayette Elementary. That school overhaul includes sustainable features like green roofs, and the facility is expected to qualify for LEED Gold certification when complete in November.

Skanska has been a longtime participant in the sustainability and climate change arenas and is a signatory to multiple global initiatives. Prior to the COP21 International Climate talks in Paris in December, Skanska was one of 54 building and real estate companies that signed the Building and Real Estate Climate Declaration, which urged policymakers to tackle climate change issues.

School construction has boomed recently, as school districts in states like Connecticut and New York have announced plans for the modernization of existing schools, in addition to the construction of new ones. A recent New York Building Congress analysis found that New York City saw $3 billion worth of school starts and renovations in 2015, an increase of 83% from 2014 and double the yearly average spend when compared to the period between 2010 and 2014. The NYBC also determined that New York City tripled its spending on colleges and universities between 2014 and 2015 and managed to quadruple its cash outlays on post-secondary facilities between 2010 and 2014.