MEXICO -- Crews at the Missouri Military Academy in Mexico. Mo. completed their new academic building, Barnard Hall, in July.

The building is on its way to being the Show-Me State's first ever LEED Certified school building.

"Its cool to be one of the first at anything, especially something like this," says MMA Senior Ty Armer, from Texas.

The certification means the building was designed and constructed to improve energy savings and water efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions.

Windows line the new $8.4 million school. That's because a LEED building must have 75 percent natural lighting.

Native Missouri plants in front of the building require less water so a sprinkler system is not needed.

The building also boasts a solar-heated water system, high effiency boilers, and a motion sensor controlled HVAC system that heats or cools a room only when people are in it.

But what will the LEED Certification mean for MMA students?

"We are here to educate boys. And that is not just English, math, and science. It is about life," says Missouri Military Academy President Major General Robert M. Flanagan. 

"And I think one of the very important lessons that we teach them is about our environment. And we have boys from about 11 countries around the world. So we're not just spreading it here in Mo. or in the United States, but all over the globe."

And MMA cadets tell me the lesson of stewardship will stay with them when they leave the academy.

"You're definitely going to leave here with that idea and you're probably going to use that later in life to impact other companies, businesses," says MMA Sophomore Andrew Chow from New York.