Shokan Walikhanov School became the first and the only educational facility in the CIS that received a LEED certificate, which indicates that the school was built in accordance with all international environmental standards.

LEED (The Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) is a rating system of certification for the so-called green buildings, facilities with low impact on the environment. LEED certification was developed in 1993 by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) as a building standard for measuring the energy efficiency and sustainability of projects and buildings.

To obtain LEED certification, a building must be assessed against a number of international environmental requirements. In particular, the facility must be equipped with systems that provide for the efficient use of energy and water, and it must have technologies for reduction of waste, emissions and other environmental impacts; environmentally friendly materials must be used during construction. An important aspect of the facility’s compliance with LEED standards is the capacity to maintain the health of people inside the building.

After an expert assessment of new construction and major repairs, the building of Shokan Walikhanov School received 49 points with a passing level of 26 points. After passing the certification, the building was assigned the LEED v4 environmental safety category, which speaks for the high standards and quality of the materials used during construction.

“This is a really important stage in the history of our school. We are proud that we can show our students and their parents a high level of responsibility not only in the educational process, but also in caring for the ecology of our city. We have a comprehensive approach to the implementation of environmental and ecological activities, which is an urgent issue nowadays,” – says Assel Tasmagambetova, ecologist, founder of Shokan Walikhanov School.

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Private school named after Shokan Walikhanov was opened in in Almaty 2020. The school is designed for 800 students from grades 1 to 11. The languages of instruction are Kazakh and Russian.

Its founders are a married couple – Kenes Rakishev, a businessman, and Assel Tasmagambetova, a philanthropist and an ecologist.

Obtaining a LEED certificate by the school is one of the stages of a large environmental project that Kenes Rakishev and Assel Tasmagambetova have been actively implementing for many years.