Nearly $700,000: Castro Valley Unified School District Saves Money Through Environmental Initiatives

Message from Castro Valley Unified School District:

Castro Valley Unified School District has received national recognition with an Environment Excellence Award for achieving sufficient savings with its district-wide energy-efficient behavior. The award was presented at the Board of Education meeting on December 11, 2014.

The district has achieved a 16 percent cost savings totaling $691,788 in 40 months since forming a strategic alliance with Cenergistic, a national energy conservation company, “Reaching this level of savings at this stage of the program is a significant achievement. Castro Valley Unified School District has done an excellent job of implementing Cenergistic’s organizational behavior based approach to energy conservation and maintaining productive efforts at all levels of the organization. The administration and all staff members are to be commended for clearly fulfilling their commitment to being good stewards of the organization’s energy dollars and the environment,” said Dr. William S. Spears, Chairman and Founder of Cenergistic.

“Strong support from everyone involved in the organization has created an atmosphere of cooperation that should continue to grow and ensure even greater success well into the future,” Dr. Spears said. “I am extremely pleased to present Castro Valley Unified School District with our Environmental Excellence Award.”

Superintendent Jim Negri said, “I am extremely pleased with how quickly staff adopted and implemented changes to support the district’s value in conserving energy. The district has experienced significant savings which has allowed us to maintain current programs. Special thank yous go to Michael Miller, Director of Maintenance, Operation and Transportation, and the three individuals who have served as the district’s Energy Educator – Dustin Gacherieu, currently Principal at Jensen Ranch Elementary School; Blaine Torpey, currently Interim
Principal at Castro Valley High School; and, Ray Villegas, the current Energy Educator who is a teacher at Redwood High School. Dustin, Blaine and Ray have done a tremendous job of changing behaviors that save energy.”

A primary benefit of the Cenergistic program is that all costs come out of the existing utility budget, with savings projected to more than pay for the program, as they have done for Castro Valley Unified School District. Additional savings can be redirected to other parts of the budget.

The conservation program examines all areas of energy use throughout Castro Valley Unified School District. Cenergistic’s conservation experts — in natural gas and electricity, water and sewer, HVAC systems, Energy Management Systems (EMS) and mechanical systems, behavior modification, communications, grounds care, data analysis, information systems management, organization development, construction management, human resources, utility rate structures, and many other areas of specialization that positively impact energy conservation — work closely with Castro Valley Unified School District’s Energy Specialist, Mr. Ramon Villegas.

They train him to analyze all energy use throughout the organization’s systems, and to ensure that energy is used as efficiently as possible, following Cenergistic’s energy management program.

The program delivers an environmental benefit from a reduced carbon footprint. Energy not used prevents the emission of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. According to EPA/EGrid figures, in the first 40 months of the program, Castro Valley Unified School District saved 26,320 MMBTU, the equivalent of 1,558 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions being prevented, 325 cars removed from the road, or 39,949 pine trees grown for 10 years.

Mr. Villegas tracks energy consumption — including electricity, water, sewer, natural gas and fuel oil — using energy-accounting software. He compares current energy use to a baseline period and calculates the amount of energy that would have been used had conservation and management practices not been implemented. By tracking consumption and analyzing energy use, he can quickly identify and correct areas that need immediate attention.

Cenergistic’s technology-powered, data-driven energy conservation methodology has helped Castro Valley USD reduce its consumption of electricity, natural gas, fuel oil and water by optimizing the infrastructure, improving internal processes and changing behavior to ensure that savings endure.

--Image via Castro Valley Sanitary District