- Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service Agency
- Kalamazoo RESA News & Events
Local school districts honored for energy management
Several Kalamazoo County school districts that are part of an energy management consortium led by Kalamazoo RESA are achieving big savings with energy-efficient behavior – and now those good habits are earning national recognition.
Kalamazoo RESA, Climax-Scotts Community Schools, Galesburg-Augusta Community Schools and Schoolcraft Community schools formed a consortium in 2009 and entered into contracts with Energy Education, a national energy conservation company. The other six districts in Kalamazoo County – Comstock, Gull Lake, Kalamazoo, Parchment, Portage and Vicksburg – also have worked with Energy Education Inc. Kalamazoo County was the first county in Michigan to have all of its school districts participating in the same energy management program.
The consortium districts have achieved a 25 percent cost savings totaling $644,996 in 22 months since forming the alliance with Energy Education. The company presented the consortium with its Environmental Excellence Award at the Aug. 18 meeting of the Kalamazoo RESA Board of Education.
“Reaching this level of savings at this stage of the program is a significant achievement. The Kalamazoo RESA consortium has done an excellent job of implementing Energy Education’s organizational behavior-based approach to energy conservation and maintaining productive efforts at all levels of the organization,” said Dr. William S. Spears, chairman and founder of Energy Education. “The administration and all staff members are to be commended for clearly fulfilling their commitment to being good stewards of the organization’s energy dollars and the environment.”
The conservation program examines all areas of energy use throughout the participating districts. Energy Education specialists Timothy Kerney and David Linton track energy consumption – including electricity, water, sewer, natural gas and fuel oil – and implement conservation procedures in all facilities in each district.
A primary benefit of the Energy Education program is that all costs come out of the existing utility budget, with savings projected to more than pay for the program, as they have done for the Kalamazoo RESA consortium. Additional savings can be redirected to other parts of the school districts’ budgets.
The program also delivers an environmental benefit from a reduced carbon footprint. Energy not used prevents the emission of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides.
According to EPA/EGrid figures, in the first 22 months of the program, districts in the Kalamazoo RESA consortium saved 43,662 MMBTU, the equivalent of 4,360 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions being prevented, 783 cars removed from the road, or 111,525 pine trees grown for 10 years.