Fueled by its cost-saving and energy efficiency initiative, an elementary school in the Riverside School District earned a statewide award that will help it generate additional revenue.
The Keystone Energy Efficiency Alliance Energy Education Fund on Tuesday named Riverside Elementary West as one of four schools to receive the first Energy Efficient Schools Award.
The award, sponsored by the alliance and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, recognizes schools that made significant improvements in their energy efficiency over the last year.
The other schools recognized were the Cook-Wissahickon Elementary School in Philadelphia, Northwest Pa. Collegiate Academy and Upper-Perkiomen High School in Pennsburg.
Citing the installation of LED efficient light bulbs and motion sensor lights, school Principal Paul Brennan said recent measures reduced energy consumption throughout the district by more than 5 percent.
Students also played a critical role in the initiative by powering down computers or turning off the lights when leaving empty classrooms, he said.
"It's easy to tell our students to be energy efficient, but we wanted to model expected behaviors," Mr. Brennan said. "It's also a great way to reduce costs in the long run."
For winning, the school can work with EMC2 Development Co. to sell its energy efficiency credits in the PJM Capacity Market, said alliance President Liz Robinson.
The energy efficiency resource is valued at $6,800.
"It's a steady revenue stream, which, with the tight school budgets statewide, can be critical," Ms. Robinson said.
District Superintendent David Woods attributed the school's success to the administration and school board's "ahead of the curve" mentality.
"Our school board challenged the administration to not only save energy, but to teach students how to save energy," he said.
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