Zero energy school construction is a growing trend across the country. An innovative combination of internal and external champions, integrated design, energy efficiency management strategies and renewable energy is making these possible at little to no extra cost. The key to achieving zero energy is drastic energy reduction and cost shifting to areas that pay dividends and reduce those big upfront costs. Strategies such as building orientation, daylighting, thermal mass, high efficiency systems and can reduce the over need for larger, more expensive renewable energy systems to achieve that zero goal. CMTA, Inc. has 10 schools operating at zero energy, with 12 currently in design and hundreds more high performance schools across the nation on their resume. Join Zachary Schneider and Brian Turner from CMTA, Inc. as they discuss the successful approach to planning for and designing these high performance schools without the price tag.