District Administration - June 2009 - (Page 32)

Creative Ways of Reducing Energy Costs Schools spend more than $8 billion annually on energy, but as much as 30 percent of it is wasted, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Here are some energy-saving initiatives that districts have implemented. 1. Hiring an energy manager “We are definitely seeing the position of district energy manager or energy-efficiency coordinator becoming more common,” reports Ron Blagus, energy market director at Honeywell. “Having a dedicated individual to track utilities, report progress, promote and follow up on energy-saving strategies is essential to success,” says Connie Coriell, energy-efficiency coordinator for the Bridgewater-Raritan (N.J.) Regional School District, who oversaw the district’s 2007 energy-efficiency initiative, which reduced energy use by 10 percent, saving over $ 300,000 in its first year alone and earning Energy Star certification from the EPA. 2. Evaluating your district’s energy use The EPA’s Energy Star program offers a free software application called Portfolio Manager to help districts carefully benchmark their energy use, and a number of corporations and some state departments of energy will conduct energy audits, the cost of which can often be offset by grant funding. A 2004 audit by Honeywell in the MoriartyEdgewood (N.M.) School District, for example, uncovered an $18,000 billing discrepancy caused by a broken electric meter. Some schools have even recruited students; eighthgraders in the Monarch K8 School in the Boulder Valley (Colo.) School District have been examining their school’s energy use as part of their earth science curriculum for each of the past five years. The students’ 2009 report estimated a potential savings of $4,000 in their school and $250,000 across the district in electric bills alone if their recommended efficiency measures were undertaken. 3. Centralizing facility automation systems Heating, cooling and lighting together account for nearly 70 percent of energy use in schools, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In addition to keeping filters clean and equipment in good condition, companies such as Honeywell, Cisco and Trane will consolidate scattered HVAC, lighting and electricity controls into a single location or a control software program. At Memorial Elementary in the Brunswick City (Ohio) School District, Trane implemented a centralized building automation system last year, enabling administrators to monitor and control energy use, including climate settings, lighting, and power schedules via a single software program accessible online. The school now uses 23 percent less energy than the average school building and was awarded Energy Star certification in April. 4. Upgrading lighting Lighting accounts for some 26 percent of the electric bill in the average school, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Lighting upgrades can make a significant difference: The Oregon Department of Energy estimates that replacing older T12 fluorescent lights—typically installed in the 1950s and 1960s—with today’s smaller, more efficient T8 fluorescents will reduce electricity usage by between 17 and 48 percent. The Wilton (Conn.) Public Schools hired Alliance Energy Solutions to install high efficiency fluorescent lighting in its buildings in 2007 with funding from the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund and now saves $ 88,000 annually in electric bills. 5. Automating computer power Running a single computer continuously for one year can cost $125 in electricity, according to a recent study by the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Environmental Center. Managing the power use of all district computers can be simplified by any of a variety of large-scale energy management software programs, including Faronics’ Power Save, Dragon Systems’ Power Manager, Apple’s Remote Desktop or Lightspeed Systems’ Power Manager, which enable a single user to program energy-saving settings or schedule the powering-off times of an unlimited number of computers in a network. Many districts have also made use of wind and solar power to reduce their energy costs. —Kurt Dyrli www.DistrictAdministration.com Read about more ways of reducing energy costs. 32 June/July 2009 SUSTAINABLE SCHOOLS conservation, and one in California could concentrate on energy conservation. While LEED standards have become best known in new construction projects, the USGBC has in the past year targeted renovations in existing schools and has launched pilot programs in a dozen districts, from DeKalb County in Georgia to Poudre, Colo. “We looked for districts that had already bought in to LEED,” explains Gutter, who says her organization also offered $35,000 in green consulting services for each district. And last April, the Alliance for Leadership and Interconnection celebrated in part the success of Cincinnati Public Schools, in which all 22 schools under design will be LEED Silver or higher, the largest concentration of LEED-certified schools in the country by a district. Ohio is the leading state in the country for implementing green design in schools, says Ginny Frazier of ALLY, a citizen’s group that provides guidance for policy development and environmental sustainability implementation. SPECIAL SECTION Meeting High Performance The Collaboration for High Performance Schools (CHPS) has emerged as another national organization that sets sustainability standards and verifies that schools have met them. What began as an informal group of California schools a decade ago has developed into an influential force reaching districts in Washington, Texas, Colorado, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and New York. “When we started, our focus was on efficient use of energy and other resources,” recalls CHPS’s Ariel Dekovic. “But the definition of a high-performing school has grown much larger to include the health and comfort of the building and whether students can hear and see well.” “Schools have wholeheartedly embraced daylight and natural ventilation,” observes architect Timothy Dufault, who has designed numerous LEED-certified and CHPS-verified schools and chairs the Committee on Architecture for EducaDistrict Administration http://www.DistrictAdministration.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - June 2009

District Administration - June 2009
Contents
From the Editor
News Update
Stimulus Monitor
District Profile
Admin Profile
Crisis Response
Tech Disruptions
A Deeper Shade of Green
The New School Lunch
Business Brings Sustainable Lessons to School
A Netbook for Every Student
Vision Videos Empower Students
New Books
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
New Products
Problem Solution
Online Edge

District Administration - June 2009