GreenQuest Offers Free Community Energy Efficiency Tool to School Districts

In order to encourage community-wide energy efficiency, GreenQuest has launched the "School's Out Promotion" for school districts.

GreenQuest is a personal web-based energy dashboard that enables home and business owners to track the energy use for their home or building and gain valuable energy efficiency insights.

Through the School's Out campaign, school districts can provide GreenQuest to their students, staff and community members at no cost to the district or the community. The School's Out free offer is available to districts that enroll by August 31.

By sponsoring GreenQuest, organizations can educate, raise awareness, and promote energy conservation. More than 150 school districts have already signed up to sponsor their own privately-branded GreenQuest websites, making GreenQuest available to over three million U.S. households. The sponsorship includes a private webpage and GreenQuest application branded with the school district's logo and optional messaging so users know who is providing this valuable service.

The award-winning Loudoun County Public Schools in Virginia was the first school district to sponsor a GreenQuest website. According to Mike Barancewicz and John Lord, the district's Energy Education Team, "We want to provide everyone with the knowledge and tools they need to be not only consumers of energy, but also savers of energy. GreenQuest is a perfect tool for individuals who want to take control of their energy use and costs."

On their district website, LCPS invites all community members to use GreenQuest to track the energy information for their household or place of business.

In the classroom, GreenQuest is a practical instructional tool. According to Steve Heinz, CEO of Good Steward Software, publisher of GreenQuest, "Teachers can use GreenQuest to illustrate principles of energy, weather, greenhouse gas emissions, mathematics, and even home economics. For teachers wishing to utilize new technology in the classroom, GreenQuest is an innovative online application."

In addition to tracking energy use and cost, GreenQuest automatically performs energy benchmarking; measures the effectiveness of energy savings projects; compares each building's energy use with its peers; tracks the carbon footprint; analyzes energy use with AccuWeather weather data; and as an option, obtains an Energy Star building rating for commercial buildings.

The service is completely free for community members and it's safe and secure -- no confidential user information (such as account numbers) is entered into GreenQuest. Through the School's Out promotion, sponsorship by a school district is also free. Until August 31, the GreenQuest setup fee will be waived.

Since Basic Sponsorships are always free, school districts can provide this powerful tool at no cost -- forever.