Energy Matters Resilient Schools

Fredrikson & Byron

Mark and Kate Hanson

H.B. Hayden Jr.

Kathleen Jones

Lenfestey Family Foundation

Sarah Lynch

Natural Resources Defense Council

Jane Newman and Amy Lange

Michael and Patsy Noble

Christopher O’Brien

Prairie Restorations Inc.

Gary and Susan Rappaport

Thomas Schnettler and Cheryl Appledorn

Gary and Mary Ann Schokmiller

Leola and Ray Schruers

Amy Skoczlas Cole and Jason Cole

The Saint Paul Foundation, David Robinson and Janet Ekern

James Uttley

Steve Wilson and Mary Shedd

THE HISTORIC HAMM BUILDING

408 ST. PETER STREET, SUITE 220

ST. PAUL, MN 55102

Address service requested

NONPROFIT ORG

U.S. POSTAGE

PAID

TWIN CITIES MN

PERMIT NO. 2624

eNerGYMAtters

v O L u M e N O . 3 0

RESIlIENT SChOOlS

NewtON circLe: $10,000 edisON circLe: $2,000–$4,999.

Donna W. Allan and Bill Mahlum

Anonymous

Atomic Data

Randy and Bird Anderson

John Berns

Paul and Shannon Burke

David Chizek, MD

Community Energy, Inc.

Christine and Loren Danielson

Elmer L. & Eleanor J. Andersen Foundation

Lakewinds Food Co-op

David and Sarah Lilja

Macalester College

M.A. Mortenson Construction

Minnesota Solar Energy Industries Association

Raj V. Rajan

Shayna Berkowitz and Phyllis Wiener and Still Ain’t Satisfied, a Foundation with Attitude

SunShare

Accredited Investors, Inc.

Anonymous

Aveda


Lang Family Foundation

Ross and Bridget Levin

Richard and Joyce McFarland

SunEdison

The David Winton Bell Foundation

The Dick and Joyce H. McFarland Family Fund of the Mpls Fdn

Anonymous (3)

Audubon Minnesota

Patricia Benn and Ned Crosby

Eric Blank and Nancy Printz

Third Level Design

Joel and Alexandra Cannon

Carolyn Foundation

David and Kitty Crosby

Kim and Carol Culp

Alan and Lollie Eidsness

Charles Dayton and Sara Evans

Becky Erdahl

Cody and Laura Fleischfresser

curie circLe: $5,000–$9,999.

Anonymous

An Anonymous Fund of the Minneapolis Foundation

R. Michael and Sharon A. Conley

Iberdrola Renewables

Steven Leuthold Family Foundation

Photo credits:James LafeyetteCover photo: School of Environmental Studies (Apple Valley)

Page 3: Albert Lea High School

tesLA circLe: $1,000–$1,999.

Sunrise Energy Ventures LLC

Jim Wolford

Kate Wolford and Ed Reilly

Medora Woods

Across Minnesota, school buildings can serve as the lifeblood of entire neighborhoods and communities. The classrooms, cafeterias, libraries, and gymnasiums in our schools are some of the most heavily used spaces we have. But the size and age of our schools mean they use an incredible amount of energy – which can mean big utility bills and a lot of wasted resources spent on energy rather than education.

By improving the energy efficiency and performance of our schools, we can make them more resilient and reduce costs significantly. Resilient schools help cut waste out of our energy system while providing a more efficient and healthy learning space for our students and teachers, all while supporting local businesses. But in order to make your school building more resilient, you have to understand how it’s currently performing. Benchmarking energy usage is the simple, yet critical, first step toward understanding the strengths and weaknesses of our school buildings. Benchmarking can be as easy as simply typing in your monthly utility bill information into a pre-formatted spreadsheet that adjusts this data based on the weather. By entering utility bills every month, you can build a baseline of performance that will serve as the foundation for possible improvements in the future.

By comparing that baseline performance to the statewide average and top performers for a building your size, you can start to find specific opportunities, both large and small, to cut waste from your energy system. Are you using a lot more electricity than other schools your size? Maybe more efficient light bulbs can help lower your electricity bill. Does it seem like your boiler has to run a lot more to keep the building comfortable

for the students and teachers? A boiler replacement might help, or you might need to add insulation or find some gaps where the building isn’t fully sealed. There are countless options

and solutions for improving your building’s performance and lowering your utility bills. But until you know how your school is using energy, you’ll never be able to find the most cost effective solutions for your building.

While the initial benefit may be a drop in your utility bill, energy improvements can have a much

broader impact. By using local businesses to install window shades or improve your ventilation, you can support workers and their families in your area. By lowering your utility costs, you can help save the school district, and local tax payers, money. By using less energy, you can lower your carbon footprint and provide a real world example for students to learn about construction, conservation, and energy use. Most importantly, making improvements to air quality and lighting has been shown to improve both academic performance and student health.

These benefits don’t just exist in theory. Dozens of Minnesota schools have already begun benchmarking their energy performance in order to find cost-effective solutions to make their buildings more resilient. Those schools provide excellent examples of how the simple step of benchmarking energy usage can lead to significant benefits across the board.

how Much Energy Are Our School Buildings Using?

Benchmarking helps you track energy use over time.

“LOWERING UTILITy COSTS

SAVES THE DISTRICT AND

TAxPAyERS MONEy.”

2 E N E RGY MAT TE RS | vOlUM E 30 W W W. FRESh - E N E RGY.ORG 3

Across Minnesota, school buildings can serve as the lifeblood of entire neighborhoods and communities. The classrooms, cafeterias, libraries, and gymnasiums in our schools are some of the most heavily used spaces we have. But the size and age of our schools mean they use an incredible amount of energy – which can mean big utility bills and a lot of wasted resources spent on energy rather than education.

By improving the energy efficiency and performance of our schools, we can make them more resilient and reduce costs significantly. Resilient schools help cut waste out of our energy system while providing a more efficient and healthy learning space for our students and teachers, all while supporting local businesses. But in order to make your school building more resilient, you have to understand how it’s currently performing. Benchmarking energy usage is the simple, yet critical, first step toward understanding the strengths and weaknesses of our school buildings. Benchmarking can be as easy as simply typing in your monthly utility bill information into a pre-formatted spreadsheet that adjusts this data based on the weather. By entering utility bills every month, you can build a baseline of performance that will serve as the foundation for possible improvements in the future.

By comparing that baseline performance to the statewide average and top performers for a building your size, you can start to find specific opportunities, both large and small, to cut waste from your energy system. Are you using a lot more electricity than other schools your size? Maybe more efficient light bulbs can help lower your electricity bill. Does it seem like your boiler has to run a lot more to keep the building comfortable

for the students and teachers? A boiler replacement might help, or you might need to add insulation or find some gaps where the building isn’t fully sealed. There are countless options

and solutions for improving your building’s performance and lowering your utility bills. But until you know how your school is using energy, you’ll never be able to find the most cost effective solutions for your building.

While the initial benefit may be a drop in your utility bill, energy improvements can have a much

broader impact. By using local businesses to install window shades or improve your ventilation, you can support workers and their families in your area. By lowering your utility costs, you can help save the school district, and local tax payers, money. By using less energy, you can lower your carbon footprint and provide a real world example for students to learn about construction, conservation, and energy use. Most importantly, making improvements to air quality and lighting has been shown to improve both academic performance and student health.

These benefits don’t just exist in theory. Dozens of Minnesota schools have already begun benchmarking their energy performance in order to find cost-effective solutions to make their buildings more resilient. Those schools provide excellent examples of how the simple step of benchmarking energy usage can lead to significant benefits across the board.

how Much Energy Are Our School Buildings Using?

Benchmarking helps you track energy use over time.

“LOWERING UTILITy COSTS

SAVES THE DISTRICT AND

TAxPAyERS MONEy.”

2 E N E RGY MAT TE RS | vOlUM E 30 W W W. FRESh - E N E RGY.ORG 3

EXPLORE YOUR OPTIONSOnce you know how you compare to other similar schools, you can explore your options for improving your performance.

AGAIN!As you start to see the savings and benefits of your improvements, you’ll be able to see those changes in your benchmarking data,

enabling you to continue on the path to a more

resilient school.

RESILIENT SCHOOLSThe path to a more resilient school begins with benchmarking your building performance, exploring your options for improving that performance, and choosing the options that provide the greatest benefits for your school.

LIGHTINGEnergy e�cient light bulbs and natural lighting

HEATING AND AIRHVAC and air filtration

AUTOMATIONSmart thermostats and occupancy sensors

BUILDING ENVELOPEWindows and insula-tion

BENCHMARKINGTracking your energy use over time allows you to compare your building performance to the industry average and top performers.

SAVINGS AND BENEFITSMaking your school more resilient will help you use less energy, reduce your utility bills, and create a healthier learning environment for your students and teachers.


AGAIN!As you start to see the savings and benefits of your improvements, you’ll be able to see those changes in your benchmarking data,

enabling you to continue on the path to a more

resilient school.

RESILIENT SCHOOLSThe path to a more resilient school begins with benchmarking your building performance, exploring your options for improving that performance, and choosing the options that provide the greatest benefits for your school.

LIGHTINGEnergy e�cient light bulbs and natural lighting

HEATING AND AIRHVAC and air filtration

AUTOMATIONSmart thermostats and occupancy sensors

BUILDING ENVELOPEWindows and insula-tion



STEP 1



STEP 2 STEP 3


For many public schools, deciding to track their energy performance is fairly straightforward. As Steve Lund, Energy Manager for Albert Lea Area Schools explains, “after staff, utilities are your next biggest cost.” Those big energy bills also present a big opportunity to find some real savings.

But finding savings requires a full understanding of how the buildings are being used in the first place. That’s where benchmarking utility data comes in.

For facilities and operations managers, that data is what allows them to find the projects that can provide real savings. “We started the process of benchmarking to see where we were compared to others and to start the justification to retro[fit our buildings],” said Tim Rybak, Operations Manager for Bloomington Public Schools.

Lund adds that for Albert Lea, “the data is absolutely critical. I don’t know how anyone can know where they are going when they don’t know where they’ve been. When I enter the data every month, I get a report back that compares our performance to buildings of like ages and uses. It could be that we’re in the 95 percentile, which is

great. But sometimes we may fall down to the 65. Then we know we need to take a look at what caused that.”

Many of the easier fixes can involve removing extra appliances like individual mini-fridges in classrooms or gradually putting in more energy efficient lighting. But some of the most significant long-term savings can come when examining the building itself.

“Usually when you start looking at it, you look at what we call the building envelope – roof, walls, and windows,” said Rick Olson, Director of Finance for Foley Public Schools. “Often times the roof insulation is one of the big savings. If you have older windows that are single pane, going to double pane is going to be a big savings.”

Some projects can benefit multiple facets of your building — like covering a pool. In Foley, Olson realized that covering their pool helps it keep its

temperature and keeps extra humidity out of the air. Now they’re using less energy to heat the pool and they no longer have to find a way to get rid of the added humidity and the mold and air quality issues it can create.

In many cases, taking the human element out of the equation can simplify the process — such as automatic shutoffs for everything from lights, computers, and showers. “Whether it’s computers, lights, or heat — when it’s not needed it’s shut down,” said Lund.

But it’s not all automation. “How we use our facilities can have a significant impact on that cost,” said Olson. Rybak adds that in Bloomington, they “do try to do some behavioral modifications based on benchmarking. And they do yield savings.”

For public schools, the bottom line ultimately comes down to how benchmarking helps them achieve real savings.

“Any savings we find in our energy program can go toward education and programing,” said Lund. “We’ve saved over $3 million in ten years. That means something for a school like ours. $300,000 a year makes a big difference.”

FresH eNerGY’s rOLe

Fresh Energy is dedicated

to policies that help improve

Minnesota schools by cutting

energy waste and making

buildings more resilient. By

increasing the awareness of the

energy performance of school

buildings and actively pursuing

cost-effective solutions, we can

lower utility bills and ensure

funding is used where schools

need it most.

Our previous work includes

improving Minnesota’s building

codes, providing flexible

financing options for public

building improvements, and

securing funds for the Safe

Routes to School program.

is YOur scHOOL

beNcHMArkiNG

sAviNGs Yet?

Find Out Now:MN.B3BENCHMARKING.COM/

REPORT

SchoolS Save money by cutting energy waSte

46 PerceNt OF MiNNesOtA scHOOLs HAve beNcHMArked tHeir eNerGY use.

SAVINGS CASE STUDY: ALBERT LEA

$3 MILLIONin energy savings33%

REDUCTION IN ELECTRICITY USE6,366 megawatt hours in 2002-2003

down to 4,434 megawatt hours in 2014-2015

31%REDUCTION IN NATURAL GAS USE

389,889 therms in 2002-2003 down to 279,373 therms in 2014-2015

11.5%REDUCTION IN WATER USE

8.6 million gallons in 2002-2003 down to 6.9 million gallons in 2014-2015

“THE DATA IS ABSOLUTELy

CRITICAL.”

W W W. FRESh - E N E RGY.ORG 76 E N E RGY MAT TE RS | vOlUM E 30

STEP 1



STEP 2 STEP 3


For many public schools, deciding to track their energy performance is fairly straightforward. As Steve Lund, Energy Manager for Albert Lea Area Schools explains, “after staff, utilities are your next biggest cost.” Those big energy bills also present a big opportunity to find some real savings.

But finding savings requires a full understanding of how the buildings are being used in the first place. That’s where benchmarking utility data comes in.

For facilities and operations managers, that data is what allows them to find the projects that can provide real savings. “We started the process of benchmarking to see where we were compared to others and to start the justification to retro[fit our buildings],” said Tim Rybak, Operations Manager for Bloomington Public Schools.

Lund adds that for Albert Lea, “the data is absolutely critical. I don’t know how anyone can know where they are going when they don’t know where they’ve been. When I enter the data every month, I get a report back that compares our performance to buildings of like ages and uses. It could be that we’re in the 95 percentile, which is

great. But sometimes we may fall down to the 65. Then we know we need to take a look at what caused that.”

Many of the easier fixes can involve removing extra appliances like individual mini-fridges in classrooms or gradually putting in more energy efficient lighting. But some of the most significant long-term savings can come when examining the building itself.

“Usually when you start looking at it, you look at what we call the building envelope – roof, walls, and windows,” said Rick Olson, Director of Finance for Foley Public Schools. “Often times the roof insulation is one of the big savings. If you have older windows that are single pane, going to double pane is going to be a big savings.”

Some projects can benefit multiple facets of your building — like covering a pool. In Foley, Olson realized that covering their pool helps it keep its

temperature and keeps extra humidity out of the air. Now they’re using less energy to heat the pool and they no longer have to find a way to get rid of the added humidity and the mold and air quality issues it can create.

In many cases, taking the human element out of the equation can simplify the process — such as automatic shutoffs for everything from lights, computers, and showers. “Whether it’s computers, lights, or heat — when it’s not needed it’s shut down,” said Lund.

But it’s not all automation. “How we use our facilities can have a significant impact on that cost,” said Olson. Rybak adds that in Bloomington, they “do try to do some behavioral modifications based on benchmarking. And they do yield savings.”

For public schools, the bottom line ultimately comes down to how benchmarking helps them achieve real savings.

“Any savings we find in our energy program can go toward education and programing,” said Lund. “We’ve saved over $3 million in ten years. That means something for a school like ours. $300,000 a year makes a big difference.”

FresH eNerGY’s rOLe

Fresh Energy is dedicated

to policies that help improve

Minnesota schools by cutting

energy waste and making

buildings more resilient. By

increasing the awareness of the

energy performance of school

buildings and actively pursuing

cost-effective solutions, we can

lower utility bills and ensure

funding is used where schools

need it most.

Our previous work includes

improving Minnesota’s building

codes, providing flexible

financing options for public

building improvements, and

securing funds for the Safe

Routes to School program.

is YOur scHOOL

beNcHMArkiNG

sAviNGs Yet?

Find Out Now:MN.B3BENCHMARKING.COM/

REPORT

SchoolS Save money by cutting energy waSte

46 PerceNt OF MiNNesOtA scHOOLs HAve beNcHMArked tHeir eNerGY use.

SAVINGS CASE STUDY: ALBERT LEA

$3 MILLIONin energy savings33%

REDUCTION IN ELECTRICITY USE6,366 megawatt hours in 2002-2003

down to 4,434 megawatt hours in 2014-2015

31%REDUCTION IN NATURAL GAS USE

389,889 therms in 2002-2003 down to 279,373 therms in 2014-2015

11.5%REDUCTION IN WATER USE

8.6 million gallons in 2002-2003 down to 6.9 million gallons in 2014-2015

“THE DATA IS ABSOLUTELy

CRITICAL.”

W W W. FRESh - E N E RGY.ORG 76 E N E RGY MAT TE RS | vOlUM E 30

Fredrikson & Byron


H.B. Hayden Jr.

Kathleen Jones

Lenfestey Family Foundation

Sarah Lynch

Natural Resources Defense Council

Jane Newman and Amy Lange

Michael and Patsy Noble

Christopher O’Brien

Prairie Restorations Inc.

Gary and Susan Rappaport

Thomas Schnettler and Cheryl Appledorn

Gary and Mary Ann Schokmiller

Leola and Ray Schruers

Amy Skoczlas Cole and Jason Cole

The Saint Paul Foundation, David Robinson and Janet Ekern

James Uttley

Steve Wilson and Mary Shedd

THE HISTORIC HAMM BUILDING

408 ST. PETER STREET, SUITE 220

ST. PAUL, MN 55102

Address service requested

NONPROFIT ORG

U.S. POSTAGE

PAID

TWIN CITIES MN

PERMIT NO. 2624

eNerGYMAtters

v O L u M e N O . 3 0

RESIlIENT SChOOlS

NewtON circLe: $10,000 edisON circLe: $2,000–$4,999.

Donna W. Allan and Bill Mahlum

Anonymous

Atomic Data

Randy and Bird Anderson

John Berns

Paul and Shannon Burke

David Chizek, MD

Community Energy, Inc.

Christine and Loren Danielson

Elmer L. & Eleanor J. Andersen Foundation

Lakewinds Food Co-op

David and Sarah Lilja

Macalester College

M.A. Mortenson Construction

Minnesota Solar Energy Industries Association

Raj V. Rajan

Shayna Berkowitz and Phyllis Wiener and Still Ain’t Satisfied, a Foundation with Attitude

SunShare

Accredited Investors, Inc.

Anonymous

Aveda


Lang Family Foundation

Ross and Bridget Levin

Richard and Joyce McFarland

SunEdison

The David Winton Bell Foundation

The Dick and Joyce H. McFarland Family Fund of the Mpls Fdn

Anonymous (3)

Audubon Minnesota

Patricia Benn and Ned Crosby

Eric Blank and Nancy Printz

Third Level Design

Joel and Alexandra Cannon

Carolyn Foundation

David and Kitty Crosby

Kim and Carol Culp

Alan and Lollie Eidsness

Charles Dayton and Sara Evans

Becky Erdahl

Cody and Laura Fleischfresser

curie circLe: $5,000–$9,999.

Anonymous

An Anonymous Fund of the Minneapolis Foundation

R. Michael and Sharon A. Conley

Iberdrola Renewables

Steven Leuthold Family Foundation

Photo credits:James LafeyetteCover photo: School of Environmental Studies (Apple Valley)

Page 3: Albert Lea High School

tesLA circLe: $1,000–$1,999.

Sunrise Energy Ventures LLC

Jim Wolford

Kate Wolford and Ed Reilly

Medora Woods

Date post:	30-Jul-2016
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Energy Matters Resilient Schools

Documents