“This is a significant achievement for the Graves County Schools,” said school district maintenance director John Oldham. “I’m very pleased and proud that our maintenance staff, with support from our schools, the board of education, and the finance and technology departments that collaborated so well with Harshaw Trane in striving toward a common goal! Two of our schools have attained ENERGY STAR status in only one year! With that as inspiration, we as a team are working toward attaining ENERGY STAR status at other schools in our district soon.”
To earn the ENERGY STAR awards, the district began a partnership with Louisville-based energy services company Harshaw Trane in 2015 to update facilities by taking the following actions:
High-efficiency LED lighting district-wide
Total HVAC system replacement at high school
HVAC replacement at elementary (1980 section)
Address comfort concerns in high school
Variable flow pumping conversions
Water conservation
Minimal disruption to school during construction period
Significant utility cost reduction
Commercial buildings that earn the ENERGY STAR use an average of 35 percent less energy than typical buildings and release 35 percent less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Graves County Schools improved its energy performance by managing energy strategically across the entire district and by making cost-effective improvements to its buildings. In 2016, the district has saved a total of $81,852 in energy costs Seen a 16% energy reduction overall. Since its baseline year, the district has saved 1,188,078 kWh in electric and increased natural gas by 10,759 ccf. These savings are equivalent to:
245 Passenger Cars not driven for a year
2,637 Barrels of oil not burned
9 acres of forest saved
15 school buses taken off the road
“The ENERGY STAR certifications at these schools are validation that the Graves County school board made an environmentally and fiscally-sound decision to move forward with an energy savings project in 2015,” said Kyle Johnson, Harshaw Trane Education Sustainability Leader. “This project resulted in a better learning environment for the students and created a new revenue stream for the district with avoided energy costs generated from this project. Harshaw Trane looks forward to working with the district staff in the future to ensure their continued success.”
