According to a statement issued by the Salt Lake City School District, the participating schools — East High, Highland High and West High — saw an average decrease of more than 21 percent in overall energy consumption. Generally, this progress was made by taking simple steps such as turning off lights, unplugging computers and office equipment, and more closely monitoring the schools’ heating and cooling systems. When combined these savings add up to a 1.15 million pound reduction in CO2, or the equivalent of taking 115 cars off the road.

The pilot program was developed by Salt Lake City School District Superintendent McKell Withers and implemented by the district’s Energy and Resource Manager Greg Libecci. “This wasn’t rocket science,” said Libecci. “The task was simple: Save energy by turning things off when they were not in use. By paying attention to heating and cooling schedules, lights, computers, printers and copiers and turning them off when not in use or when they wouldn’t be used in the near future, we saw significant power savings.”

At each school, the program quickly garnered the support and cooperation of everyone from students to staff to the custodial pool. To participate, each school principal signed an agreement that committed their facility to greater energy use awareness. The agreement also directed school staff to select Energy Challenge Ambassadors to serve as energy liaisons, as well as a student group to help direct student body efforts. Regular conservation updates were provided by Libecci to the school communities and were displayed widely throughout the schools. Students, teachers and staff were also asked to compile a set of best practices for energy consumption and post them to a central “Go Green, Earn Green Energy Challenge” bulletin board.

“The results of this ‘Go Green’ challenge have been outstanding,” Superintendent Withers said. “With a few simple acts of conservation, we are able to direct more tax-payer funds to student learning instead of utility costs. We plan to continue this program and to continually look for additional ways to conserve energy, recycle, and reduce waste.”

As an added bonus, the district returned a generous 75 percent of the savings, which ranged from roughly $11,000 to upwards of $14,000, back to the schools. Though no plans have been announced for these additional funds, Libecci said the school principals will likely determine how the money is used.

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The new heating and cooling system will use geoexchange technology and high efficiency natural gas boilers to cut the district’s energy bills. Geoexchange temperature management works by running water into the ground and relies on the difference in temperature between the ground and the air. During the cold winter months, underground pipes are warmer than the outside air, meaning the water can be used to heat air before it is moved throughout the building. During the warm summer months, the relatively cooler subterranean temperatures can be transferred into the building instead.

The project will go a long way in terms of preserving Canada’s natural gas resources. The change to a geoexchange system will result in a 45-percent decrease in energy use, saving the equivalent of enough natural gas to heat over 360 homes per year. The move will also significantly lower the districts greenhouse gas emissions. The change represents a 69-percent drop in emissions, the equivalent of taking 450 cars off the road per year.

The system will save the district a lot of money, especially because the Province of British Columbia requires all public sector organizations to achieve carbon neutrality, meaning they cannot contribute to global warming by emitting greenhouse gasses. Facilities that do not have their own clean energy sources must purchase carbon offsets, which basically consists of contributing funds to an organization that plants trees in the rainforest or does something else to combat the effects of global warming. The school currently purchases approximately $100,000 in carbon offsets each year. Combining this with the energy savings themselves, the district anticipates savings in excess of $180,000 per year.

Frank Geyer, director of facilities and planning at the school district, explained the project would be accompanied by a series of upgrades, rounding out the effort to increase fuel facilities.

He explained, “Facilities are being constructed, renovated and retrofitted with energy conservation in mind, including solar hot water systems and state-of-the-art energy consumption monitoring. A number of other initiatives have also been implemented to do our part in making our operations more efficient.”

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