Sustainable Jersey
At a Glance
Industry
Nonprofit
Project Types
Commercial Energy Efficiency, Financial Evaluation and Planning
Year
2015
Location
Ewing, NJ
Annual kWh Savings:
200,000 kWh
Summary
Lindsey Walaski helped school districts identify energy-saving opportunities and provided feedback on the Sustainable Jersey for Schools program.
Goals
Sustainable Jersey is a non-profit organization that provides resources to communities looking to improve their sustainability. In the fall of 2014, Sustainable Jersey launched the Sustainable Jersey for Schools program to provide a certification framework to benchmark schools’ efforts, identify areas of improvement and provide resources to help. The goal of Lindsey Walaski’s EDF Climate Corps fellowship with Sustainable Jersey was to assist schools in completing the Energy Actions of the Sustainable Jersey for Schools program, identifying opportunities for energy savings and providing feedback on the overall program to Sustainable Jersey.
Solutions
Walaski worked with the Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District and Shrewsbury Borough School District to establish and maintain an energy management system. These efforts included benchmarking the electricity and natural gas consumption through Energy Star Portfolio Manager and determining the greenhouse gas emissions of each school using Sustainable Jersey’s carbon footprint calculator developed by a previous EDF Climate Corps fellow. Walaski also worked with Shrewsbury to complete a Request for Proposal for an energy audit funded through the New Jersey Clean Energy Program and identified improvements to building operations to reduce electricity consumption. These improvements included replacing lamps with LEDs, adding variable frequency drives to pumps used in heating systems and converting pneumatic thermostats to digital controls. For Matawan Aberdeen, Walaski developed a road map to expand its recycling program to save electricity beyond the school’s operations.
Potential Impact
For the schools, the benchmarking and carbon footprint tools should allow business administrators and facilities staff to manage energy savings and gain certification in the Sustainable Jersey for Schools program. For Shrewsbury, the energy savings improvements have the potential to save the school district almost 200,000 kilowatt hours in electricity consumption and $25,000 in operating costs annually, which is about one-third of its baseline consumption. For Matawan Aberdeen, the recycling program expansion includes opportunities for student involvement to increase awareness of environmental stewardship among a younger audience. The program feedback and recommendations made by Walaski and the other EDF Climate Corps fellows could be utilized to increase participation in the Sustainable Jersey for Schools program and New Jersey Clean Energy Program funding opportunities by school districts across New Jersey.