Ruffing Montessori Stormwater Learning Lab
LOCATION: Cleveland, OH
Ruffing Montessori School is committed to environmental sustainability. As Northeast Ohio’s first LEED-certified school, it provides students with a unique “green curriculum,” and has established school-wide policies which enforce green cleaning, procurement, recycling, and composting.
The stormwater learning lab reinforces these principles of sustainable living and green education. Designed to provide hands-on experiences that educate students, staff, parents, and the public about the importance of rainwater management and reuse. The design features a hand pump with an underground rainwater storage cistern, bioretention cells with interpretive signage and water quality/quantity monitoring wells, permeable pavement with monitoring wells, and a clear downspout and decorative trench drain to remind everyone of humans’ rainwater impact on the environment.
Behnke assisted Ruffing in applying for and securing an Ohio EPA Section 319 Grant, which paid for 605 of the project.
