Nearly every day, a newspaper somewhere in the country is carrying a story about the success of our clients’ energy conservation programs. Below are just a few examples of the great work they are doing, and the privilege it is to serve them in such tangible, noteworthy ways.
Sheboygan Press
May 28, 2008
District lauded for saving energy
Nine Sheboygan schools certified as ENERGY STAR winners
By Doug Carroll Sheboygan Press staff
Fail to turn off the lights or close the door in the Sheboygan Area School District, and Gene Gasper just might fail you.
Gasper, the district's energy manager for the past 2½ years, has the responsibility of educating the educators on energy use. He knows the district's schools inside and out. Those needing to watch things more carefully usually hear from him in the form of a "building report card."
He's getting results. Already, nine of the district's 20 schools have been certified as ENERGY STAR award winners, ranking in the top 25 percent nationally for energy conservation among schools of similar description. Factors include a school's size, location, enrollment, number of computers, air-conditioning capacity and lighting specifications.
The district's winners are Cooper, Jackson, Jefferson, Lincoln-Erdman, Pigeon River, Sheridan and Wilson elementary schools and Farnsworth and Horace Mann middle schools. The announcement of the awards was made Tuesday night at the regular meeting of the Sheboygan School Board.
Only 117 schools in Wisconsin and 1,003 in the country have received the ENERGY STAR designation as part of a joint program of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy.
It's a feather in the cap for the district, which committed in the fall of 2005 to an energy education program and claims it has saved 24 percent in energy costs over two years, even with an additional 330,000 square feet in facilities. Most of the savings are realized when buildings are empty of staff and students and can be shut down at least partially.
For example, about $275 a year is saved when a computer is turned off during non-school hours.
"It's a combination of education and management," said Gasper, 61, who has been with the district for 24 years. "You educate them to be more efficient and cost-conscious with lighting and heat."
He has a way of making his point. When he noticed exhaust fans running at Lincoln-Erdman on a weekend two years ago, he called the principal to deliver an unusual message.
"You've got 16,000 basketballs sitting on your roof," he said, a reference to the 16,000 cubic feet of heated air that was being sucked out of the building. A basketball contains about 1 cubic foot of air.
Gasper and Dave Albright, the district's supervisor of maintenance, are proudest of the older schools, which generally have further to go because of the way they were built.
"Without energy education, there's no way Farnsworth or Horace Mann — bigger, older schools — would be energy efficient," said Albright, 47, who will succeed Wayne Kolzow as the district's coordinator of facilities services at the end of the current school year.
Gasper said energy savings requires a team effort, starting with each school's principal and head custodian and filtering down to students. The district signed a four-year contract with Energy Education, a Texas firm, in 2005 to launch its conservation program and plans to participate in a state-level program that will start soon, Albright said.