In the last several years, the growing demand that education institutions incorporate sustainable design and construction concepts in school facility plans has created a greater emphasis on using life-cycle costing. The use of long-lasting materials and equipment enables schools and universities to avoid the unnecessary consumption of energy and resources to replace those items. To keep up with a growing suburban community east of Indianapolis, Mt. Vernon High School in Fortville, Indiana, is in the midst of a $44 million overhaul.To meet the school's energy needs well into the future, workers have drilled several hundred holes 200 to 300 feet into the ground to install a geothermal heat-pump system. If administrators in the Mt. Vernon district were concerned only with the costs of installing a system to heat and cool the campus, it is unlikely that they would have chosen a geothermal system. But by looking beyond initial construction and analyzing how much the school district would have to pay to operate and maintain the system in the years ahead--and how much the system would reduce the facility's carbon footprint--Mt. Vernon leaders concluded that a geothermal system was the most cost-effective. Mt. Vernon is one of many school districts and higher-education institutions that have embraced life-cycle costing strategies as they make their facility plans. This article discusses how incorporating life-cycle costing into facility decisions enables schools and universities to have buildings that operate efficiently for the long term.