June 2008 — Features
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Green Schools : The Color of Money
School districts are discovering the abundant financial gains to be had by going green.
WHEN ARTHUR STELLAR came to Massachusetts' Taunton Public
Schools in 2005, he knew that part of his job as superintendent would
be cost cutting. That's no easy task without sacrificing the quality of
education the district provided. How to decrease what you spend
without eliminating vital resources? One way, Stellar says, is to assess
what you're already doing-- and then get better at it.
"Something all schools are doing is consuming energy," he says. With energy costs on the rise, "we needed to find a way to better use our resources."
For most districts, energy spending ranks second behind only personnel expenditures. That means conservation can have a huge impact on both the environment and the budget. But becoming more energy efficient isn't just about turning off lights and shutting down idle computers. It's about rethinking the way things are done at every level of the organization-- taking into account everything from natural gas and electricity use to HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air conditioning) systems, grounds maintenance, and construction procedures. Developing a long-term plan that will maximize savings requires a broad range of expertise not typically found at the district level. For Taunton Public Schools, that's where Energy Education came in.
A specialist in developing people-based energy conservation programs for school districts around the country, Energy Education was tasked with helping Taunton find ways to decrease its energy consumption in order to increase its bottom line. "To be successful, you have to change people's habits and processes," says Chuck Fasnacht, president of the company's Northeast division. "Our goal is to take energy dollars and convert them into education dollars."
Cha-ching!
A TYPICAL VENDING MACHINE costs between $400 and $450 a year to run. By using a motion sensor that shuts down the machine's compressor when there is no activity in the room, Taunton Public Schools (MA) expects to cut that cost by up to two-thirds with each of the 40 to 50 vending machines in the district.
Over the past two years, the program developed by Energy Education has helped Taunton save more than $660,000 in energy costs. That figure includes costs on electricity, natural gas, fuel oil, and water. Everything from disabling vending machine lights to managing irrigation has played a role in the savings.
