04/18/08 - District Saves Money Through Energy Conservation
Beginning in 1970, our country and many around the world celebrated the first Earth Day. Thirty-eight years later, Earth Day continues to be observed, this year on April 22. Earth Day has been a driving force in raising environmental awareness around the globe and in the United States. The U.S. Environmental Agency reports emissions of the six principal air pollutants have declined by 53% since the first Earth Day. Companies, organizations and individual citizens throughout the country are involved in various conservation activities, and they make a difference. Here at De Kalb School District 428, we are doing our part to conserve energy, use environmentally friendly cleaning products, and saving money through reduced energy consumption.
For the last 31 months, District 428 has been implementing a rigorous energy savings program with the help of Energy Education, Inc., that specializes in people-driven energy conservation for school districts, universities, colleges and large churches. Through partnership with Energy Education, we have significantly reduced the amount of energy our schools and the district Education Center use.
Our conservation program has led to over a 15% reduction in our overall energy consumption. By reducing consumption we have helped preserve our local environment. According to the EPA, our decrease in energy use from electricity alone is the equivalent of taking 312 cars off our local roads or planting 646 acres of trees in our community. The less electricity we use the less electricity that has to be generated, thereby reducing pollution from generation plants. Also our reduced natural gas consumption is equal to removing an additional 600 cars from the road or planting another 1,200 acres of trees.
While being better stewards of our environment, we are also saving significant taxpayer resources. Since our conservation program began less than three years ago, our district has saved over $350,000.
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