Energy Education Star Award –


WUSA9: Energy Star Rating Attained For Some Local Schools

Category: Energy Awards – Tags: , , , – September 21, 20097:22 pm

ASHBURN, Va. (WUSA) — You’re probably familiar with the Energy Star Program and Energy Education for appliances, but the EPA also has energy star for buildings as well and this can mean big energy savings for local schools.

Sanders Corner Elementary School in Ashburn, Virginia, is among the most energy efficient schools in America, and it got that way mainly through conservation.

“Well the people have to be borderline obsessive, you just can’t let waste occur anywhere in the building”, according to John Lord, Energy Education Specialist with Loudoun County Public Schools.

In order to earn the EPA’s Energy Star Rating , a school must be in the top 25% of energy efficient schools in the nation.

Maria Vargas of the EPA’s Energy Star Program points out, “We can help schools save 30-40 percent on their energy bills. That’s a lot of money when you think that schools spend about 8 billion dollars a year on their energy bills. That’s more than textbooks and computers combined.”

Energy savings in the schools has required a team effort. Everyone from the students to the teachers to the janitorial staff are all aware of the need to make the effort to do the little things like keeping doors closed to save heating and cooling costs, reporting leaky faucets and other problems as they occur.

Common sense also save a lot of energy. Keeping lights off when they’re not needed, playful reminders on light switches, and some smart control devices all make a difference. Computer use in the schools has also exploded, but the energy use has not.

Principal Kathleen Hwang keeps her office lights off as much as possible in order to help the cause. “We think that despite the fact that we’re an old school (built in 1995), we’re still able to do all the human things , we don’t need all the fancy gadgets here”

One of the Loudoun county schools that has earned the Energy Star Award was built in 1929…that just goes to show you how much you can save by changing some habits.

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