BA Public Schools Exceeds in Energy Savings
Courtesy Jan Noel Smith
ENERGETIC SMILES: All smiles over the energy saving at B.A. Public Schools are, from left, John Cockrell, Board member; Steve Majors, Board member; Jerry Denton, Board member; Dr. Janet Vinson, Superintendent, Cenergistic representative; Steve Allen, Board President; and Cenergistic representative.
Much attention is paid at Broken Arrow Public Schools to energy use. By implementing an innovative energy conservation program, the organization has significantly cut energy use saving more than $3 million in less than five years.
The focus on conservation comes from Broken Arrow Public Schools’ partnership with Cenergistic, a national firm that helps clients plan and implement a comprehensive energy program focusing on the best practices for operating healthier, more efficient buildings.
These best practices typically result in 20 – 30% savings. Savings are generated from optimizing an array of systems and schedules, including heating, ventilation, and air conditioning equipment; food service equipment; athletic facilities; irrigation; natatoriums; auditoriums; classrooms; offices — wherever energy is consumed. Cenergistic Energy Specialist Jadon Dykes works closely with Broken Arrow Public Schools staff with training and guidance from Cenergistic engineers and technicians.
“Passing the $3 million savings mark is a significant milestone. Broken Arrow Public Schools has achieved this level of success by consistently implementing our healthier, more efficient buildings approach to energy conservation and maintaining productive efforts at all levels of the organization. The leadership, along with other administration and staff members are to be commended for clearly fulfilling their commitment to being good stewards of taxpayer dollars and the environment.” said Dr. William S. Spears, Chairman – Founder of Cenergistic.
“Broken Arrow’s partnership with Cenergistic shows the benefits of an energy-savings program by saving millions of dollars in energy costs. We are then able to pass that savings back to our patrons by investing more in the classroom—where dollars matter the most,” said Larry Shackelford, Executive Director of Facilities
For Broken Arrow Public Schools, $3 million in savings is equivalent to 72 first year teacher salaries, 30 new school buses or 8,700 new Chromebooks, according to Dykes. Another benefit is the environmental impact — as the cleanest unit of energy is the one not created. The greenhouse gasses not emitted because energy was not used by the district — 24,503 metric tons of CO2 — or equivalent those created by 5,105 passenger cars not driven for a year or 628, 278 trees grown for 10 years.
Since 1986, Cenergistic has partnered with more than 1,500 educational, municipal government and healthcare organizations to achieve $6.2 billion in utility savings and cost avoidance.
These strong results come from the application of Cenergistic’s organizational behavior-based strategies and are enhanced by our proprietary software platform to drive scheduling and equipment optimization for healthier, more efficient buildings. The energy conservation program reduces utility consumption by an average of 25% with no capital investment while maintaining or improving the comfort and quality of building environments. For more than a decade, Cenergistic has been recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency as ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year or Partner of the Year – Sustained Excellence.
