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Health & Fitness

North Shore School District 112 Reduces Energy Costs and Carbon Footprint

District 112 has saved more than $160,000 in energy costs and cut its carbon dioxide emissions by 1,200 metric tons in five months.

North Shore School District 112 has saved more than $160,000 in energy costs and cut its carbon dioxide emissions by 1,200 metric tons in the first five months of a comprehensive energy management program.

Those figures were shared at the June 21 Board of Education meeting by North Shore School District 112 Energy Education Specialist Gianni Perrelli.  The district has been working in partnership with Energy Education, which specializes in helping schools and other large organizations reduce their energy consumption.

The savings were generated from reduced consumption of natural gas and electricity from the beginning of the program in December, 2010, through April, 2011, Perrelli told the board.  Expected energy costs to the district during that 5-month period were about $595,000, based on a comprehensive analysis of the prior year’s utility bills and taking into account factors like temperature differences and natural gas and electric rates.  Actual energy costs for that period came in at about $435,000, a savings of about 27 percent.

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 “We were very excited to see how much we reduced our energy usage, mostly by changing our behaviors and habits,” said Perrelli. 

The analysis by Energy Education showed that the district avoided using more than 1 million kilowatt hours of electricity, and more than 100,000 therms of natural gas. The reduced carbon footprint is the equivalent of planting more than 30,000 trees, or removing 215 cars from the roadways for a year, Perrelli said.

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 The impact on the environment is as exciting as the cost savings, said North Shore School District Superintendent David L. Behlow. 

“Everyone in our district has been made much more aware of the impact we can make on the environment both individually and collectively.” 

Much of the savings was directly attributable to changing behavior patterns in the district’s twelve buildings:  unplugging everything on weekends and school breaks, and completely powering off heating systems every evening, as well as on weekends and school breaks, Perrelli said. 

On days when school was in session, building HVAC daily usage was reduced from about 18 hours a day to about 10 hours a day, accounting for a significant percentage of the savings.

Much of the credit, board members agreed, also goes to district staff and students.

While school maintenance workers took the lead in turning off big systems at night, collective efforts were made in each building to reduce energy use.  The good news about the district’s energy reduction efforts will be shared with staff and students when they return to school in August.  In the fall, Perrelli will meet with all building principals to report on how their individual buildings stacked up in terms of energy reduction, and to suggest areas for further improvement.

North Shore School District 112 will continue to work in partnership with Energy Ed for the remainder of 2011 said Director of Operations and Facilities John Fuhrer.  They are currently examining how exhaust systems at each building can be improved to retain heat in buildings in the winter and cool temperatures in the summer.

They are also exploring the possibility of grants to allow them to buy equipment to upgrade and further automate the district’s energy management system.

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