When you think about schools, your mind likely buzzes with books, supplies and scheduling pick-ups and drop-offs. You probably don’t give electricity much of a thought — unless it’s the topic of a science project. Yet energy-incentive programs from Clark Public Utilities help area schools add money to school budgets that might otherwise go to overhead costs, like electric bills. Through these ongoing partnerships, school administrators, teachers and kids are becoming energy-smart. And saving money.
Throughout the county’s school system, districts are seeing that participating in conservation programs and reducing energy use frees up funds year after year.
Recently, Michelle Missfeldt, a senior key-account manager at the utility, made a presentation to Evergreen Public Schools. Along with Wayne Nelson, Clark Public Utilities’ general manager, and commission president Byron Hanke, she showed that the district had saved nearly 3 million kilowatt-hours — about $150,000 — each of the past two years.
“We awarded the district $361,000 in incentives toward the completion of energy-efficiency projects over a two-year period,” she said. “That money was used to help upgrade lighting, temperature controls and other energy-efficiency equipment in the district’s buildings. These energy incentives helped make the upgrades extremely cost-effective for the district. And the energy savings will provide extra dollars for student education year after year.”
The Vancouver School District audited all facilities to see where it might reduce waste of energy and water, and see savings in utility costs. This holistic approach won it a U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools award this year. The department gives the award to schools or districts that improve conservation excellence in three areas: reducing their environmental impact and cost; improving the health and wellness of students and staff; and providing valuable sustainability education.
Jennifer Halleck, VSD facilities manager, said applying for the award required noting all the district’s environmental efforts in detail. The application asked about the use of bioswales, operational training, classroom coursework like Salmon in the Schools, green-certified schools, building air quality and sustainable educational courses.
The results Halleck noted in the application included the filtering and recycling of water from the washing station for buses and mowers, saving organic scrap, sending 250 tons of food scraps to composting, and creating bottle-filling stations so students can reuse water bottles. The stations show a running total of how many bottles students keep out of the landfill through reuse. The VSD also recycled 405 tons of material, and kept 680 tons of solid waste out of the landfill. During the summer, the district stops irrigating many of its green spaces to reduce its water use.
‘Passion at all levels’
Halleck said that such results don’t happen unless everyone in the district gets behind it, and creating green teams of administrators, teachers and students was what delivered their results. Also, listening to ideas coming from employees across various district departments and inside the schools gave the green teams wider view about conservation choices.
“In our district, there was a passion at all levels, from students to administrators, for an overall plan to conserve,” said Halleck. “We wanted to save more than kilowatt-hours, but we also didn’t want one kilowatt-hour missed.”
Another partnership between local schools and the utility is the Solar 4R Schools program. This program provides grants for solar installations funded by the utility’s voluntary Green Lights program, which supports local renewable energy projects. Recently, Sacajawea Elementary requested a grant for an on-site solar array that it then combined with a covered gathering space. Uniting the two created a tool for teaching students about conservation and energy. The space holds a six-kW solar system and students can follow the energy savings on an interactive kiosk inside the school. Connected to solar4rschools.com, the kiosk and supporting solar classroom tools help students learn about energy creation and savings using real-time data from their own school. Daily it shows the output, the number of kilowatt-hours produced and the carbon dioxide emissions reduced.
Clark Public Utilities customers can contribute to Solar 4R Schools by signing up for Green Lights. For as little as $1.50 a month, customers can support the development of local renewable energy and promote education in local schools.
Energy Adviser is written by Clark Public Utilities. Send questions to ecod@clarkpud.com or to Energy Adviser, c/o Clark Public Utilities, P.O. Box 8900, Vancouver, WA 98668.
