Gov. Rendell this week said Pennsylvania is partnering with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR program to significantly improve the energy efficiency of school buildings, especially existing buildings and additions.

The state departments of Environmental Protection and Education, along with EPA, are urging Pennsylvania school districts to commit themselves to improving their energy efficiency through ENERGY STAR, a federal program helping schools, businesses and consumers protect the environment through superior energy efficiency.

ENERGY STAR offers free Web tools and resources for identifying energy reduction opportunities and developing energy management strategies. Schools that improve their energy efficiency may qualify to earn the ENERGY STAR building label based on EPA’s Energy Performance Rating System.

Currently, Pennsylvania has 73 ENERGY STAR-qualified buildings, including 12 school buildings, and the state’s ENERGY STAR buildings represent approximately 10 million square feet of space. They save an estimated $32 million annually in energy bills, while meeting industry standards for indoor air quality. The buildings also prevent 122 million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to the emissions from more than 37,000 vehicles.

Pennsylvania’s green building program has invested significant resources through increased reimbursements to school districts as incentives to build or renovate schools at the silver, gold and platinum levels of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system. Planning grants have been used to facilitate the transition to more energy-efficient buildings.

As a starting point in the energy management process, ENERGY STAR’s portfolio manager can benchmark and track energy consumption in all of a district’s buildings. The Web tool can show monthly savings by improving energy performance. It can also track cost savings, energy-use reductions and environmental impacts after building upgrades are made.

School facility managers interested in making their schools more energy efficient and earning the ENERGY STAR rating should contact Mark Hand, DEP’s Energy Star program manager at 717-787-9377, or Mindee Osno, EPA’s regional ENERGY STAR program manager at 215-814-2074.

In addition, EPA announced this week that The Philadelphia Lighting Maintenance Company has joined EPA's Energy Star program as a service and product provider and will use the Energy Star free tools and resources to help bring value to customers and sales advantage to its organization.

PLMC will be able to educate its customers about Energy Star with programs like "Portfolio Manager," a free, web-based bench marketing tool.

For more information, visit DEP’s Green Buildings webpage or the ENERGY STAR® K-12 Schools webpage.

3/24/2006