What green related things do you all have going on at your Broward County facilities

Tom L: We’ve been transitioning to a more green environment over the past three or four years. We initially started out that effort as a part of a reorganization of plant operations. We established an Energy and Utility Management Department and a separate Custodial and Grounds Department. Then we hired staff who specifically focused on the specifications and practices that we were using at our schools.

To give you an idea – we are responsible for maintaining 39 million square feet of conditioned space, including 265 schools, 12 administration buildings, and 5000 acres of grounds. We have 1250 district employees and various contractors. Plant Operations is also responsible for specifying the chemicals - in conjunction with the purchasing department – that are being used in the schools, and ensuring they are being used properly by the school staff custodian.

Rich Ellis: With our equipment, we went with the whole line of Windsor green certified equipment. When we did our complete equipment bid about six months ago, we included all the Windsor equipment we use to clean our floors, decks and so on, so we are now all green certified with that equipment.

Now we are in the process with the chemical portion of the bid, and Steve (Ashkin) is helping us. He’s going to hopefully help us secure an iron-clad bid as far as setting up a bid on all green chemicals. He’s sending me a proposal to give back to Tom Lindner to approve, acting as a consultant. The chemical portion is going to be huge due to the health factor and keeping the kids healthy and in school.

And what things are going on in the energy part of your program

Rob J.: We are heading into our fourth phase of performance contracting, and with that, what we are doing is going back and retrofitting our buildings with energy efficient lighting, chillers, low-flow water, motion sensors, irrigation controls on our fields – things of that nature. To date, we’re closing in on 90 schools that we have retrofitted and we’re starting to see the savings.

Tom: There are a couple of other initiatives that we are working on that fit in nicely with the performance contracting piece. Remember, we’re looking at 35-39 million square feet. To give you an idea (of energy expenses) – we are running right at $5 million a month, or $60 million a year in electric alone for the district. We use 50 thousand kilowatt hours a month. That is the reason right there that we are looking to become more energy efficient – just because of the dollars alone – but the byproduct is obviously becoming green, doing the right thing and being good stewards of the environment.

… and with your vehicles?

Tom: Another thing that we just started this year – and the rest of the district is piggy-backing on with us, is we are actually now using hybrid vehicles - for our emergency management staff and our supervisory staff – as part of our vehicle fleet. We have 32 in service right now with plans to buy 50 more next year.

Another thing we are working on is our buses. Next year will be our first pilot with bio-diesel fuel for our school buses.

Will this be all of your buses?

Tom: The problem with trying it on all them is the engines can’t all take bio-diesel greater than 90-10. Right now, the ones we’re buying are the new 80-20 engines.

One of the big challenges with that, from what I understand, is the supply in the tri-county area. It isn’t that we don’t want to buy even more of them, but the supply isn’t there. That is transportation’s challenge and something they need to take care of.

Any other programs you would like to spotlight?

Tom: Well, another thing we are working on that is sort of interesting is a pilot project we started with 16 schools. We sank wells and we’re treating the groundwater for direct use in the chiller plants – which is saving essentially up to 10 thousand gallons of fresh water a day through a chiller plant, and reduces the environmental footprint for that utility that has to treat that water on the back-end. So, we are essentially saving the treatment of that water every day.

It sounds like you don’t have a shortage of programs! Anything else you’d like to share? Did you experience any unexpected challenges along the way?

Tom: When you have a district this big, and you have buildings that are in the national historical register and we have new buildings as well, and we build about one million square feet per year, we have the whole continuum of buildings in size and shape and structure and that is of course particularly challenging when you are trying to roll out new technology in older buildings and in conjunction with a lot of new construction – one of our biggest challenges has been to morph that technology into some of our older buildings.

One of the biggest issues we have had, and we run into it every day, is we’re piloting some total building management systems right now – and we’re tying all our diverse building systems into one – so we have multiple technologies out there that are anywhere from 30 years old to one year old and we’re trying to tie them together into a web-based building management system that allows us to remotely address lighting and air conditioning right off the top – and to hopefully implement security and fire alarms as well.

Rob: But, right now, we are focusing on the energy management side and one of the big challenges we have had is the customers. The customers perceive a lack of control when you take away the thermostat from say, the school Principal or head custodian – there is a perceived control problem – and that has been an issue.

Tom: In just this year alone, we have cut our energy consumption five percent. But our biggest challenge is changing the culture and the idea that old stuff is the best stuff – and this is particularly prevalent in the custodial world. They are used to using the same stuff for years and years and there is a little bit of resistance because some of the green chemicals are perceived to be more labor intensive for the same result. And, from the end user side, in terms of energy consumption – they are used to being in control. Think about back in the day and your high school or middle school Principal was in charge. They like to be in charge. A real challenge is changing that culture and getting them to buy into the new technology.

Any last advice for our readers that are initiating a green program?

Rob J: One of the easy things about our program is that we are not the only ones doing this. If you find other people doing this, it is easier to sell and get your company to buy into the initial investment. I think once you get a little momentum, which is what we have – the large doors will start to open. For instance, every dollar we save, we get to keep and for every dollar we keep, we reinvest into the program. So, we are really not hitting into the school’s budget – the department pays for itself and then we reinvest that money back into the newer technology for some of our older facilities.

Tom: Another thing you can’t forget is you have to capitalize on your successes and to find yourself some strong personalities – I call these people “true believers” – that are going to pioneer your cause. You have to find the right people to buy in when you start this, because it takes a lot of personal effort at the organizational level to bring it down to the entire organization. Once you get that first success, it becomes infectious– people want to share in the recognition and the money and the savings. If you provide incentives to the people that save and give them access to some of that savings – that rolls into even more momentum and that results into a lot of synergy – which is, what I think we are experiencing.

We had some early successes and we found out where the paybacks were and we took that back to the public and showed a real return on their investment. We showed them that these new things we were buying will pay off in the long run.

Rob: Now, we have other schools and districts coming to us and saying “Hey, we can do that! We can move our thermostat up a few degrees.” And you know - that is all it takes to get them started: a few small successes and a little recognition.

 

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