DOE's Renew America's Schools Energy CLASS Prize Testimonials

[Music] the energy class prize has helped us to find a tremendous amount of savings in a very short amount of time and it's truly came in the very first month of the energy class training program and that was with benchmarking um tangibly we were able to save total about $48,000 for our school district which that is a full-time teaching position we were able to save just this year by taking and evaluating another look at how our air conditioning was being used um how our facilities were being used in the evenings and how we were able to compress that not change the level of service we were providing but modify it to make it more efficient and more um cost effective for our district so for me at ocps the most impactful thing has not only been just gaining a new member of our team which has been fantastic because he brings in expertise in lighting um and other skills but really how this additional staff member has allowed us to refocus and restructure it's freed up time for us to do deeper data analytics take preventative measures as opposed to reactionary measures take another focus on our energy star program and overall from all these initiatives we estimate we've saved about half a million dollars as a a low estimate of what we've been able to do just in the little time we've had this new staff member aboard we are tracking and our fiscal year runs from July 1st to June 30th but we are tracking on pays to nearly $2 million of savings across of course the entire District uh across 73 sides so we're really happy with that uh as a general you know high level our utility budget is around $10 million we're shaving close to 2 million so it it represents a 20% uh reduction in energy use for our district which is just really [Music] compelling the energy class prize has been a huge boost for elrin Area School District with this funding we were able to work and put together the district's very first energy plan which has been very exciting and something that we've wanted to do for years but we were really unable to figure out how to do it without the support of the Department of energy and all of the trainings that we got we knew we wanted it we just didn't know how and this really gave us the tools to be able to do that the team worked for about eight months and with the help of the coaching we received from ICF we were able to look at other samples and really put together a program that worked for us individually as a rural School District in southwest South Eastern Wisconsin so I'm very excited about it and it's something that we really think will have a long lasting impact for the kids and Community as a whole so at the core at the of the energy class prices mission is the development of energy management expertise uh We've embraced this by engaging with top-notch curriculum from professional organizations in the training Network and seizing on the one-on-one coaching opportunities additionally we've invested in certifications such as the certified energy manager cem from the Association of energy engineers and energy management professional uh professional EMP certification from the EMA so these initiatives have strengthened our Energy Management districtwide enhancing enhancing indoor quality and uh for the benefits of the students and staff uh so the beginning stages of this initiative involved a Baseline and benchmarking of the school's energy consumption uh that provided a comparison between buildings and to similar facilities Nationwide uh this revealed which buildings Andor energy-driven equipment stood out as a a priority having this information uh certainly dictated the energy management plan goals and uh definitely moved us in the direction towards clean renewable energy that uh simultaneously provides uh increased indoor air quality so this is where the concept of um the energy class prize creating energy Champions actually is has done a really good job in our instance here at Nana City school so um going through the trainings really helped kind of um both broaden the understanding of just how bad our infrastructure is and then also uh get a little bit more depth into understanding um how we can go about changing that infrastructure uh in a sound way that is consistent with reducing emissions um increasing Energy Efficiency offsetting consumption those kinds of things most notably the education was used to tailor topics uh that were shared with the students uh as our number one stakeholder so so far we have successfully completed a full year of energy lessons for all three levels of schools uh and this includes uh conservation practices for the elementary level uh understanding of energy and how to manage it for middle schoolers uh and finally connecting curriculum topics uh to clean Energy careers for high school students student involvement is a Cornerstone of what we do at ocps and especially in the sustainability office you know we're striving to ensure that every student has a promising and successful future and with that goal in mind we try and make what we do focused on the students so providing opportunities to enrich their classroom education further by providing um more data or more activities or more things that they can engage in that teach them about sustainability along with what they're already doing uh and the work that we do in on the operational side we really look at making sure the environment that they have for learning is comfortable healthy and efficient so that they're able to get the best experience in the classrooms and Facilities that they're in and of course you know having students have a say in what the future is going to be and what they're going to get as they grow into the world is important context for us to have as we move forward with our goals it's really important to the community that our buildings are open and available for use we don't have any uh public athletic facilities or uh YMCAs in our town so for us the gym is the gym the indoor pool is the indoor pool for elorn so it we really want to make sure that those facilities are open for the health and well-being of not just our children but our entire community and there were concerns initially when we started doing this project that we were going to have to limit access to those facilities but through the energy class we were actually able to save money and and keep the facilities open all of them and I'm really proud of that um the class prize will absolutely impact how we apply for future funding primarily because we know more um so we know about different opportunities for Partnerships we know about different organizations um nonprofit government organizations that we can develop relationships with and figure out you know for for Consulting yes but also for Grant application purposes or other funding um uh purposes um that should give us all the tools that we need um to really inform a strong strategic plan moving forward um to create a more energy efficient and healthier and more resilient uh facility for Nana city school district for our our boarding facility Our Living Center um and should be better for our community in general so I think that the energy CL class has really taught me specifically as a student of the energized Elks but also our teammates really as what tools we need in order to be eligible for outside funding previously we had been shooting darts at a dartboard basically and trying to just see what funding was out there without fully understanding what infrastructure we needed to already have in place to truly be eligible and now we actually have the tools and the information of available to make more informed decisions and also more informed applications as a result so the phase 2 prize uh we hope to use this funding towards taking our team on the road uh we have within Orange County Public Schools more than 200 schools across a very large footprint so we intend to secure uh an electric van that we can equip with educational materials supplies and other things that we can bring to schools as sort of an in school field trip so that every school regardless of resources and time can have a a field trip experience that is enriching and fun for students but it doesn't have those barriers like Logistics and planning that some schools have trouble overcoming uh I guess in closing uh the professional development offered by the energy class prize uh and the district's commitment to this initiative uh is really what makes success our plan so we are very thankful to have uh had the opportunity to participate uh and we are graduating with the ability to continue achieving efficient and healthy schools so thank you