Three Bend schools win energy-reduction competition
Bend-La Pine Schools supported the work of the Bend Energy Challenge through the Energy Conservation Challenge for all schools. The goal was to mobilize everyone comprising the BLS team — administrators/supervisors, principals, assistant principals, teachers, facilities staff, nutrition staff and all school employees – to help to improve energy efficiency through changes in operating practices.
The challenge encouraged students and staff to understand more about their energy consumption, find new ways to reduce energy, and ultimately try to reduce what they use at school and at home in conjunction with the Bend Energy Challenge. The incentive, through a generous donation by Karnopp Peterson LLC, is a cash prize of $1,500 for the Elementary, Middle and High School with the largest % reduction in electricity consumption. Results were gathered by comparing the billing cycles from the 2015 school year with the 2016 school year.
Students and staff worked hard to turn off lights and electronics, removed or de-lamped vending machines, shut down and unplugged during school breaks and made energy conservation a priority. Our top schools totaled 176,325 kWh reduced, compared to last year. The winners of the 2016 BLS Energy Competition are……………
Highland Elementary School
Cascade Middle School
Summit High School
“I was really impressed with the collaboration between teachers, staff and students. I provided tips and ideas to the schools, and some tasks for student green teams to accomplish throughout the year. I was impressed to see efforts pay off and the real world learning that was accomplished during the year. The best part was the students had fun – especially with making energy tip videos!” states Jackie Wilson, Sustainability Coordinator for Bend-La Pine Schools.
Each school will receive a cash prize of $1,500 presented by Karnopp Petersen LLC. Award assemblies will be held on:
March 14 th at Summit High School
March 24 th for Highland – at Westside Village due to the lack of gym space at Highland
May 26 th at Cascade Middle School
About The Bend Energy Challenge
The Bend Energy Challenge is a project of The Environmental Center, a Bend nonprofit organization that is leading the local team effort in the national Georgetown University Energy Prize competition. The Energy Challenge is a collaborative effort of local and state government, the energy utilities that serve our community, local schools, businesses and nonprofits, and statewide energy organizations. For more information, visit www.bendenergychallenge.org or contact Lindsey Hardy at 541-385-6908 x11 or lindsey@envirocenter.org.
About Georgetown University Energy Prize
The Georgetown University Energy Prize is challenging millions of people in communities across the country to tap their imagination, creativity, and spirit of competition to become more energy efficient. After a rigorous 6-month application and filtering process, 50 communities were announced in January 2015 to compete for 2 years to be among the 10 finalists selected in April 2017. The winner will be announced in the summer of 2017 with judging based on performance, innovation, sustainability, and replicability. For more information, visit www.guep.org or call Chris Nelson, Project Director, at christofer.nelson@georgetown.edu or 202-642-2061.
