Five years ago, School District 21 began an energy savings program to reduce costs and the impact on the environment. This program, which includes everything from educating staff and students about reducing usage to monitoring equipment to ensure that energy savings are in-place, involves the coordination of staff throughout CCSD21.

With the collection of data for the 5th year of the District’s Energy Program now complete, community members and staff members alike can reflect on the success of the program. As the program has matured, School District 21 has continued to increase its energy savings steadily each year.  The program’s first year of energy savings in 2006 was 21% and $260,000 in cost savings. While this was a great start, now, in its fifth year, the program has realized an energy savings of almost 31% and $432,700 in cost savings!

Over the five years of the program, the total cost avoidance (calculated by comparing what is currently spent today versus what was spent in the baseline year prior to implementing the program) is an energy savings of 27.3% and a cost savings of $1,882,310.

In considering the impact of these energy savings on the environment, School District 21's conservation efforts are equivalent to the elimination of 11,312 metric tons of CO2 being released in to the atmosphere or 2,030 passenger cars not being driven for 1 year.