Chalk up a million for good behavior

Faculty and staff at Lawrence County Schools have chalked up over a million bucks worth of good behavior. Their energy-efficient practices have earned big savings — and now those good habits are earning the organization national recognition.

Lawrence County Schools has achieved $2,125,416 in cost savings in 44 months since forming a strategic alliance with Cenergistic, a national energy conservation company, which presented its Energy Excellence Award during the board meeting January 26th. Leading LCSS efforts is Energy Specialist, Josh Jones.

“Reaching this savings mark is a significant milestone. Lawrence County Schools has achieved success by consistently implementing the organizational behavior-based approach to energy conservation and maintaining productive efforts at all levels of the organization.

The Director of Schools and board, along with other administration, faculty and staff members are to be commended for clearly fulfilling their commitment to being good stewards of the taxpayers’ money and the environment,” said Dr. William S. Spears, Chairman and Founder of Cenergistic.

“Strong support from Director of Schools McDaniel and the board have 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 Lawrence County Schools with our Energy Excellence Award. The district joins a very committed group of organizations across the country working hard to achieve energy savings so the dollars saved can be redirected to educational needs,” said Dr. Spears.

A key 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 Lawrence County Schools.

Additional savings can be redirected to other parts of the budget. Many organizations credit the program with helping keep personnel and programs that would otherwise have fallen victim to budget cuts — a very real concern with today’s school funding crisis.

As part of the program, Energy Specialist Mr. Josh Jones tracks energy consumption — including electricity, water, sewer, and natural gas — 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 is a technology-powered, data-driven energy conservation company. Cenergistic helps organizations reduce consumption of electricity, natural gas, fuel oil and water. Its proven approach is built on a proprietary methodology which optimizes clients’ infrastructure, improves internal processes and changes behavior to ensure that savings endure.

This approach empowers the average client to save 20 – 30% off expected utility bills. For the past eight years, Cenergistic has earned national recognition from the United States Environmental Protection Agency, including the ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year – Sustained Excellence Award in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016.