About
ENC Nature Preschool gives children hands-on experience with nature through daily interaction with their natural surroundings. The program includes creative play, problem-solving, and other hands-on daily experiences that let children explore and experience nature.
• Ages: 2–5 years old
The Environmental Nature Center, a non-profit public benefit corporation founded in 1972, opened ENC Nature Preschool in 2019. The preschool is described as a developmental play-based emergent curriculum where children’s ideas, inquiries, discoveries, and investigations are nurtured and implemented, and where engagement in the environment and with others is identified as the place where real learning occurs. With hands-on daily experiences, children are described as acquiring a deep, intuitive understanding of nature and the natural world, and the preschool states that it celebrates the spirit of learning through nature and nature play.
ENC Nature Preschool is part of a non-profit organization that relies on both donations and tuition to support nature-based early child education for neighborhood families regardless of their ability to pay. The Environmental Nature Center provides educational programs to thousands of local children each year and relies primarily on community donations, and the vast majority of the funds for the ENC Preschool project were raised from local donors. The preschool educates 72 children daily, engages parents in active learning, serves as a model nature preschool, and provides a research forum on early childhood and environmental education. The overall project costs for ENC Preschool were approximately $8 million, including land, soft costs, construction hard costs, and furnishings, fixtures, and equipment.
The project is Living Building Challenge Petal Certified under LBC 3.1, with a certification status of Petal Certified. The preschool is designed and operated as a net-zero energy facility with on-site renewable energy systems offsetting annual energy consumption, including a 32 kW rooftop photovoltaic system that offsets the facility’s energy use on an annual basis, including the consumption of three electric vehicle charging stations. The enclosed areas are naturally ventilated via operable windows, operable partitions, and manually controlled operable wall louvers, with space heating supplied via radiant slab heating systems served by heat pump water heaters. Interior and exterior lighting systems are designed to be energy efficient and to complement abundant daylighting, and laundry, kitchen, and water heating appliances are energy-efficient and all-electric, with no on-site combustion of fossil fuels.
The project site is described as being designed for small humans to explore and experience nature safely once they arrive at school, with a playground area made up of different outdoor classroom spaces that provide multiple activities responding to particular natural environments. Different areas and elements of the site can be manipulated daily to create different characteristics and landscapes. All new plant materials on the project site are native to California, all non-native plant material was removed prior to development, and the site restores a native landscape consisting of plants found in the coastal sage scrub ecoregion. The planting does not use supplemental irrigation, fertilizer, or pesticides, and the landscape is described as aiding in the conservation of resources and providing habitat for endangered animals and birds, such as the California gnatcatcher.
The project is described as being designed and constructed so that it does not diminish the quality of fresh air, sunlight, and natural waterways for neighboring homes, buildings, or sites. It has no on-site emissions, does not block views from or cast shadows on adjacent sites, and is developed to support natural drainage flows in the neighborhood. The design preserves mature shade trees both on and adjacent to the project site, and the preschool building and photovoltaic system are located in the least shaded area of the property to maintain existing shade trees without limiting photovoltaic energy generation. Staff are encouraged to walk or cycle to the site, and the facility includes a staff shower room and both short-term and long-term bike storage.
Last updated July 23, 2026.
• Ages: 2–5 years old
The Environmental Nature Center, a non-profit public benefit corporation founded in 1972, opened ENC Nature Preschool in 2019. The preschool is described as a developmental play-based emergent curriculum where children’s ideas, inquiries, discoveries, and investigations are nurtured and implemented, and where engagement in the environment and with others is identified as the place where real learning occurs. With hands-on daily experiences, children are described as acquiring a deep, intuitive understanding of nature and the natural world, and the preschool states that it celebrates the spirit of learning through nature and nature play.
ENC Nature Preschool is part of a non-profit organization that relies on both donations and tuition to support nature-based early child education for neighborhood families regardless of their ability to pay. The Environmental Nature Center provides educational programs to thousands of local children each year and relies primarily on community donations, and the vast majority of the funds for the ENC Preschool project were raised from local donors. The preschool educates 72 children daily, engages parents in active learning, serves as a model nature preschool, and provides a research forum on early childhood and environmental education. The overall project costs for ENC Preschool were approximately $8 million, including land, soft costs, construction hard costs, and furnishings, fixtures, and equipment.
The project is Living Building Challenge Petal Certified under LBC 3.1, with a certification status of Petal Certified. The preschool is designed and operated as a net-zero energy facility with on-site renewable energy systems offsetting annual energy consumption, including a 32 kW rooftop photovoltaic system that offsets the facility’s energy use on an annual basis, including the consumption of three electric vehicle charging stations. The enclosed areas are naturally ventilated via operable windows, operable partitions, and manually controlled operable wall louvers, with space heating supplied via radiant slab heating systems served by heat pump water heaters. Interior and exterior lighting systems are designed to be energy efficient and to complement abundant daylighting, and laundry, kitchen, and water heating appliances are energy-efficient and all-electric, with no on-site combustion of fossil fuels.
The project site is described as being designed for small humans to explore and experience nature safely once they arrive at school, with a playground area made up of different outdoor classroom spaces that provide multiple activities responding to particular natural environments. Different areas and elements of the site can be manipulated daily to create different characteristics and landscapes. All new plant materials on the project site are native to California, all non-native plant material was removed prior to development, and the site restores a native landscape consisting of plants found in the coastal sage scrub ecoregion. The planting does not use supplemental irrigation, fertilizer, or pesticides, and the landscape is described as aiding in the conservation of resources and providing habitat for endangered animals and birds, such as the California gnatcatcher.
The project is described as being designed and constructed so that it does not diminish the quality of fresh air, sunlight, and natural waterways for neighboring homes, buildings, or sites. It has no on-site emissions, does not block views from or cast shadows on adjacent sites, and is developed to support natural drainage flows in the neighborhood. The design preserves mature shade trees both on and adjacent to the project site, and the preschool building and photovoltaic system are located in the least shaded area of the property to maintain existing shade trees without limiting photovoltaic energy generation. Staff are encouraged to walk or cycle to the site, and the facility includes a staff shower room and both short-term and long-term bike storage.
Last updated July 23, 2026.
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