District 112 Wins U.S. EPA Energy Star Leader Award

The information below comes from District 112.

North Shore School District 112 recently received the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 2012 Energy Star Leader award for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 35 percent in 2012.  

The district is proud to be part of an elite group of organizations across the county to have received this award.  

Since December 2010, the district has significantly reduced expected energy expenditures for natural gas and electricity by almost $700,000 and demonstrated environmental stewardship.   This translates into preventing 5,000 metric tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere.  Energy use in commercial buildings accounts for nearly 20 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions at a cost of more than $100 billion per year, and our local efforts make a real difference on a local, national and global level.

The district has accomplished this savings by performing retrofits to lighting systems, enrolling in energy curtailment programs, and most importantly,
changing the behaviors of staff members when it comes to using energy consuming devices, said North Shore School District 112 Energy Education Specialist Gianni Perrelli.  Since December 2010, the district has been working in partnership with Energy Education, which specializes in helping schools and other large organizations reduce their energy consumption.

Much of the savings is 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.  “We are very excited to see how much we reduced our energy usage, mostly by changing our behaviors and habits,” said Perrelli.  

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.”