Eco - Local Eco News

POSTED: Sunday, Sep. 21, 2008

School districts find significant energy savings in innovative programs

Whatcom County schools are going green — and saving green for taxpayers — by reducing, reusing and recycling.

Schools are some of the biggest energy users, thirstiest diesel consumers and have some of the heftiest trash pickups in the county. The impact of their eco-friendly changes is being measured in tons and in tens of thousands of dollars.

Decreasing energy use with new technology, implementing extensive recycling programs and consolidating school bus routes go a long way to reduce Whatcom County's carbon footprint.

In addition, by serving locally grown foods in some cafeterias, providing cleaner indoor air and switching to non-toxic cleaners, school districts throughout the county are making changes that leave the Earth and students healthier in the long run.

"It all goes back to our primary mission: education," says Ron Cowan, assistant superintendent for business and operations for Bel-lingham Public Schools. "Better air quality helps kids learn and energy savings helps put more dollars in the classroom. We all have to pitch in and make it work."

Here's a look at just some of the ways school districts are becoming eco-friendly.

EFFICIENT AS POSSIBLE

School districts aren't simply telling teachers to shut down computer monitors at night and flip off the light switches when they leave the room. Many school officials are using programs that monitor and reduce energy use throughout all the buildings in the district.

Last year, the Ferndale School District contracted with Energy Education Inc., a Texas consulting company that helps school dis-tricts reduce energy use. The company provides training for agriculture education teacher Tony Torretta, who has been assigned as energy manager for the district. He monitors energy use with specialized software, setting schedules to make sure heating and cooling systems are used as efficiently as possible.

The result: between January and June, the district saved $110,000 in energy costs.

Ferndale schools looked into the program last year after water, gas and electric costs in the district were approaching $1 million for the year — greater than the school's curriculum budget, says Aaron Kombol, director of special projects for Ferndale schools.

Energy Education Inc. budgeted a $200,000-a-year reduction in energy costs through the program and will pay the difference between Toretta's extra pay and the $64,000 yearly contract if the energy savings don't cover the costs.

"At this point, we're on track to exceed the budgeted energy savings," Toretta says.

SMALL CHANGES, BIG SAVINGS

Bellingham schools plan to hire a similar resource conservation manager for the district. The manager will evaluate the district's en-ergy use, make plans for reducing heating and cooling costs and educate staff and students. The hiring is part of a program through Puget Sound Energy. If the district's energy savings with an energy monitor doesn't pay for the new hire's half-time position salary, PSE makes up the difference.

Small changes in each of the districts buildings have already started adding up to big savings. At Kulshan Middle School, variable speed drives added to the hot water pumps in the school reduce the energy needed to heat water and move it around the building. In one year, the new pumps saved $1,000 in energy costs at the school.

The district is now considering control systems that sense outside air temperature and tell boilers when to operate and when to shut down and lighting sensors that shut off lights automatically when no one is in the room, says Mike Anderson, Bellingham School District manager of buildings and grounds.

Anderson estimates the new resource manager's efforts and new technology could save $200,000 a year of the $2.8 million in utility costs for the district.

"We're hoping for more," he says.

But Anderson admits it's a tough process when energy costs keep rising. Successful efforts often just stave off double-digit price in-creases from power and fuel companies.

When the district changed how it operated boilers in several schools, it reduced the system's operations costs by 9 percent, Anderson says. But energy costs rose the same year by 16 percent, leaving the district with a 7 percent increase despite their efforts.

"In the last 20 years, energy costs have risen about 30 percent," Anderson says.

SHOWER POWER

Any maintenance or remodeling in the district is an opportunity to chip away at energy use. When water heaters for gym showers in the district's high schools needed to be replaced, on-demand hot water heaters were installed. Now the district isn't using natural gas 24 hours a day to keep water hot for showers taken just after gym class.

"We look at (reducing energy use) in everything we do," Anderson says.

Lynden and other school districts have already participated in Puget Sound Energy programs to upgrade lighting with high-efficiency fixtures partially paid for by the energy company. And the district recently replaced most of the district's computer screens with more efficient flat-screen monitors, which has added to energy savings.

Before "green" meant anything other than a color and envy, Lynden heated its middle school with steam from the Darigold Inc. milk powder plant for several decades. Darigold charges a reasonable rate for the surplus heat, Lynden School District Superintendent Dennis Carlson says.

"That building has the lowest energy costs of any of the buildings," he says.

CLEARING THE AIR

Before school started last year, the price for diesel in Whatcom County was $2.65 per gallon. By the end of the school year, the cost was $4.29 a gallon.

For Bellingham School District, that meant its diesel costs skyrocketed from a budgeted $275,000 for the school year to almost $450,000. "We had to eat that out of local reserves," Cowan says.

Bellingham and Mount Baker school districts are now looking for ways to consolidate bus routes, use less fuel and save more money in the budget for other necessities.

It's not always an easy sell for parents, who might not be happy with longer bus rides for some students and earlier arrivals at school, Cowan said.

While these efforts are fueled mainly by economics, the end result is less diesel used and fewer diesel fumes in Whatcom County air.

BIODIESEL BUSES

In Mount Baker schools, the district is not only streamlining bus routes, but also using tiered routes, so one bus makes multiple trips to certain areas. That means fewer buses on the road. And they're finding places to store buses during the day closer to schools, so the buses don't have to use up fuel just getting to the school for afternoon pickups, says Jim Frey, Mount Baker School District assistant superintendent.

In Ferndale, the bus fleet is fueled with a blend of biodiesel.

In the Meridian School District, officials are replacing aging buses with more fuel-efficient, emission- controlled models. The replace-ments come at no cost to the district because of the reimbursements the district receives from the state for the older buses' deprecia-tion, Meridian Superintendent Tim Yeomanssays. The new buses will get an estimated 9 to 13 miles a gallon, compared to the old buses 4 to 6 miles per gallon.

The Lynden School District is adding smaller buses to the fleet and reducing the amount of stops on the bus routes by requiring stu-dents to gather in small groups in their neighborhood for pickup, Carlson says.

"The expensive part of operating school buses isn't the driving, it's the stopping and starting up," Carlson says.

GREEN DESIGN

Brand-new schools in Washington are going green from the ground up.

New state standards require that newly constructed schools and some remodeling to be built to standards that make schools energy efficient, conserve water, use non-toxic or recycled products, and provide healthy environments for students and staff with natural light and clean air systems.

The two newest schools in Whatcom County, Cascadia Elementary in Ferndale and Wade King Elementary School, both meet these standards, set in the Washington Sustainable Schools Protocol as well as the replacement Shuksan Middle School, scheduled to open in 2009.

"It costs more to build these schools initially," says Cowan. "But we recover the costs through efficiencies."

RECYCLING LESSONS

The daily lesson of how consumption affects the planet is taught daily with lunch tray scraps in a number of schools in Whatcom County. While all schools in the county have recycling for paper, plastic and cans, at least a dozen schools take the remnants of uneaten food from daily lunches and convert it into fertilizer by composting.

The blue ribbon standard in the county is the Mount Baker School District, which started a food-scrap recycling program more than a decade ago. The program has been honored numerous times by state and federal officials and received visitors from across the country and even overseas to check out the process.

Students do the separating right in the cafeteria with special containers that take not just plastic, paper and cans, but also meat, greens and other food waste.

Last year, the recycling efforts saved the district $14,000 on its garbage bill, says Becky Phillips, the district's sustainability coordina-tor. In just six months of the school year, students contributed 51,000 pounds to the compost pile.

It comes full circle for students, who use some of the compost in horticulture classes.

Phillips says what's now called "green" goes back to the way her grandmother taught her to conserve, mostly in an effort to save money. "I was raised not to be wasteful," Phillips says. "Kids need to have that started from the beginning."

Several other schools in the county have jumped on board with a new program operated by Sanitary Service Corp., which provides pick up and composting in its Food to Flowers program. Elementary and middle schools in the Bellingham School District are now part of the program, which will be added to the high schools this year.

Anderson says Bellingham schools diverted 60 tons of garbage to recycling programs last year. The district is working towards a goal of 200 tons, he says.

'ENERGY IS OUR FUTURE'

As leaders in learning, school administrators and teachers say they want to teach children about caring for the environment not just by talking, but doing.

Throughout school districts, clubs, classes and projects are directing environmental education to students. Students are even taking the lead on determining how their own schools can be more environmentally conscious.

At Meridian High School last year, several students examined the energy savings that would be achieved with the planned replace-ment of outdated boilers. In Mount Baker School District, students in the Ecology Club are working on their own projects evaluating environmental impacts of students car-pooling and how to improve outdoor air quality.

Torretta, Ferndale's agriculture teacher and energy monitor, is taking his recent energy education to his students this year with an environmental science class where students learn about alternative energy systems such as solar and geothermal. The class is focused on natural resources and the worldwide debates about the future of energy use.

"It wasn't hard to fill the class," Torretta says. "I think kids are excited about the future. And I think energy is our future. Now more than ever."