The pressures to contain costs in school design and construction can be intense, and—because many stakeholders still cite cost as a major barrier to designing and building a ZE K–12 school—those pressures can thwart efforts to pursue a ZE or zero energy ready (ZER) project. By examining the costs of a subset of existing ZE schools and the strategies used to contain those costs, architects, engineers, owners, and researchers are challenging the notion that cost is a barrier to building ZE schools.