Green Schools Toolkit: Know Your Numbers

Benchmarking

Benchmarking is the process of measuring something so that you can manage it. A benchmark is a very accurate measurement of an established item. It can be expressed as a quantity, quality, level of effort, or anything else one wants to compare fairly to other established entities that monitor the same data in a similar way.

• Benchmarks allow for "Apples-to-Apples" comparisons
• Benchmarks are used to see how well you are doing compared to others.
• Benchmarks allow you to zero-in on specific items, making fair and accurate comparisons easier.

Once you have accurately populated the benchmarking tool (such as the Environmental Protection Agency's Portfolio Manager) with timely data, you can share the information and conduct comparative analysis among your own buildings or with other, comparable schools, and see if you are as efficient as they are. Once you know how efficient you are in comparison to your own past performance or that of other similar schools, you can start to look for improvements in efficiency and zero in on the specific areas that require the most attention.

Portfolio Manager

EPA Portfolio Manager is a program of the U.S. EPA Energy Star Division that helps to track and assess energy and water consumption, and carbon footprint, within individual buildings as well as across your entire building portfolio. Enter your energy consumption, building metrics, and cost data into your Portfolio Manager account to benchmark either a building or group of buildings' energy performance. This data allows you to assess energy management goals over time, and identify strategic opportunities for savings.

Once you have input all of the data required, Portfolio Manager will track energy and water consumption and from this data calculate your carbon emissions. Portfolio Manager will not calculate carbon savings for items such as a recycling program, composting, the use of veggie based utensils/cups or reduction of junk-mail; it is designed to monitor energy and water use only.

Metrics

Adventurous analysts can slice and dice their numbers for even more data. This type of data is commonly called "metrics." You will want to know your "metrics" when talking to your Business Officer, Financial Director, or Facilities Engineers. Some effective metrics:

• Express your building in terms of dollars per square foot
• Express your building in terms of energy consumption (BTU's) per square foot
• Graph out building or campus energy consumption month by month to look for the months you use the most or which buildings use the most energy
• Track your demand charges or power factor and look for ways to lower and optimize your power consumption

Environmental and Energy Audits

After benchmarking your buildings, or even at the same time as you enter the data, it's time to start analyzing your buildings to learn about their personalities. Are they cold or too warm or maybe even both? Do they let wind blow in and air-conditioning leak out? Are the boilers/furnaces (heating plants) and air-conditioning systems old and inefficient, poorly maintained or broken? Do you have low-flush water-closets and urinals or waterless urinals? Are faucets and fountains using water saving and restricting devices? Doing an audit informs where efforts will have the largest impact, and how to prioritize your actions.

An environmental audit can include an analysis of energy, water, waste, recycling, transportation, hazardous chemicals, food, purchasing, landscaping, and curriculum. An energy audit provides detailed information about the energy efficiency of your school or campus. From the audit, you will be able to identify various energy improvements, commonly called Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs) that will yield the highest financial payback and greatest energy and carbon reduction results.

To prepare for an energy audit, you need to know:

• How many square feet is each building?
• How much is air-conditioned and how much is heated?
• In addition to the area (square footage), how many floors are air-conditioned and/or heated?
• What year was it built?
• How would you describe this building (library, gymnasium, swimming pool, laboratory, classroom)?
• Find out the number of Heating Degree Days and Cooling Degree Days for your locale. Two sites where you can find heating and cooling degree day information based on your location are the NOAA Satellite and Information Service and BezEE Degree Days
• List the primary use for your building, if it's a building that only contains one use, like a theater, gymnasium or aquatic center, be sure to note this.

Self Audit

Self audits can be conducted by students and/or faculty. The first step in any energy audit is to continue to collect information about the building and/or campus. Use carbon calculators to input data in a user-friendly manner, such as the Zerofootprint™ KidsCalculator or the Zerofootprint™ Youth Calculator.

Your single biggest step toward carbon neutrality is through conservation and efficiency – use less energy, more efficiently!!! Although solar photovoltaic panels and wind-turbines are fun, educational and useful alternative energy sources, nothing beats reducing what you are already using! A self audit may show how to reduce what you are already using. Remember the three "R's: reduce, reuse, recycle!!! View the Northfield Mount Herman sample audit for more info.

Lighting Audit

Lighting surveys are quick and pretty easy. For example:

• List all the places your school is still using incandescent light bulbs
• Initiate a program to replace all incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents (CFLs)
• Work with your science or photography department to measure lighting with a light meter that reads out in foot-candles
• Go around your school from room to room and take light readings during daylight. Take readings for the row of desks near the windows, then a row in the middle of the room and a row on the far wall. Rooms measuring between 25 and 50 foot-candles might not even need lights on during the day, so you may be able to work with your facilities department to switch on only the row of lights on the darkest side of the room.

The goal of the lighting audit is to reduce both the number of lights used and the wattage they consume. Simply never turning them on will be the largest energy reduction effort you can undertake.

Phantom Plug Audit

Things that glow are constantly drawing power but are only used occasionally, for example:

• Chargers that are either warm or humming also are consuming power
• Things that blink or light up (other than essentials like traffic lights or clocks) should be turned off when not in use
• A power strip, with the light illuminated at the switch, still consumes a little bit of power – turn it off if there's nothing plugged into it
• Coffee makers, computers, computer speakers and monitors, microwave ovens, battery chargers, power transformers, DVD, VHS, and CD players, TVs, projectors, and smart boards should all be turned off when not in use

Audit Templates & Grants

The American Society of Heathing, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) has created a pamphlet entitled Procedures for Commercial Building Energy Audits. Schools are considered commercial buildings and the forms from this pamphlet can be used to start an energy audit. These forms can be purchased on the ASHRAE website.

The National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO) provides a guide to State Energy Programs (SEP) that identifies each state's programs to assist your school with energy audits, low interest loans and possibly grants for ECMs including comprehensive energy audits, lighting evaluation, equipment replacement, and projects using renewable and alternative energy.