Faculty and staff at Westerville City Schools have consistently paved the energy conservation pathway for other organizations while achieving significant cost avoidance with energy-efficient behavior — and now those good habits are earning the organization national recognition.
Westerville City Schools has achieved a 32 percent energy cost avoidance totaling $10,405,637 since forming a strategic alliance with Cenergistic approximately six and a half years ago.
The national energy conservation company will present the district with its Chairman’s Sustainability Award at the Board of Education meeting on Monday evening, November 25. The award lauds the organization’s success in implementing the company’s Cenergistic energy management program — a comprehensive organizational behavior-based approach to energy conservation at all levels of the organization.
“Sustaining this level of energy conservation is a significant achievement. Through the years, Westerville City Schools has done an excellent job of implementing Cenergistic’s energy management program. The superintendent and board, along with other administration, faculty and staff members, are to be commended for clearly fulfilling their commitment to being good stewards of the taxpayers’ money and the environment,” said Dr. William S. Spears, Chairman and Founder of Cenergistic. “Strong support from the superintendent and the board have created a system-wide culture of conservation and cooperation that will ensure even greater success well into the future. I am extremely pleased to present Westerville City Schools with our Chairman’s Sustainability Award. The district joins a very committed, elite group of organizations across the country working hard to conserve energy so that dollars saved can be reserved for educational needs.”
Jeff LeRose, Westerville City Schools Executive Director of Facilities & Operations, said “Every dollar we don’t spend on energy is available to us to improve our facilities and add to our instructional programs. The challenge is that saving significant energy dollars requires the consistent execution of hundreds of energy saving actions by hundreds of staff members and educators every minute of every day.”
A key benefit of the Cenergistic program is that it is self-funded and guaranteed. All program costs come out of the existing utility budget. The program’s savings pay for the program, as it has for Westerville City Schools. Additional cost avoidance measures can be reserved for other parts of the budget.
Part of the Cenergistic energy management program has involved Laura Ehninger working with Cenergistic to analyze every energy-use point in the organization, resulting in a plan to use energy wisely while eliminating waste. As Energy Specialist, she continually reviews energy use, updating plans as programs and seasons change, and performs frequent energy audits to ensure that proper conservation practices are used consistently throughout the system. “We encourage, educate and motivate our people to be part of the solution, not part of the problem”, says LeRose.
To measure and verify program success, the Energy Specialist tracks energy consumption — including electricity, water, sewer, and natural gas — using energy-accounting software. Ehninger compares current energy use to a baseline period and calculates the amount of energy that would have been used had conservation and management practices not been implemented. Tracking consumption and analyzing energy use meter-by-meter, she can quickly identify and correct areas that need attention.
Cenergistic is a technology-powered, data-driven energy conservation company. Cenergistic helps organizations reduce consumption of electricity, natural gas, and water.