About EnergySmart Schools

States and local agencies are planning to invest more than $60 billion in the next three years to build or renovate schools.  Through the EnergySmart Schools public/private partnership, DOE seeks to catalyze significant improvements in energy efficiency in the nation's K-12 schools at a time of enormous opportunity. 

DOE's program goals are to upgrade new schools to 50% better than current energy codes and improve existing schools by 30% in the next three years.  To achieve these goals, the program provides:

• Information and resources on financing
• Tools and resources to assist decision makers in planning
• Best practices for building industry professionals on energy efficient school construction and renovation
• Best practices for facilities managers on operating and maintaining high-performance systems and equipment
• Resources for teachers in developing energy-related curricula.

The outcomes of the initiative will be high-performance school buildings that:

• Save $2 billion annually
• Provide healthier learning environments, through better indoor lighting, temperature control, acoustics, and air quality
• Familiarize parents, teachers, and students with affordable, advanced energy-efficiency technologies and practices
• Help slow the demand for new power plants, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions
• May serve as emergency community shelters during grid power outages.

EnergySmart Schools and Our National Energy Policy
The EnergySmart Schools program makes important contributions to meeting the goals of the 2001 National Energy Policy (NEP).  NEP sets out several objectives, including:

• Increasing energy conservation
• Relieving congestion on the Nation's electricity transmission and distribution systems
• Establishing a national priority for improving energy efficiency and protecting the environment.

Implementation of the NEP is a top priority for DOE's Building Technologies Program.  Increasing the energy efficiency of schools helps reduce the consumption of electricity, natural gas, and to a far lesser extent, oil. Lowering our energy consumption decreases America's vulnerability to potential energy supply disruptions (including imported natural gas) and price spikes in heating oil, natural gas, and electricity.  With public schools nationwide spending more than $8 billion per year on energy, the economic advantages are significant.

Because the power demand of buildings is the majority of peak electricity use, reducing the electricity used by schools can help relieve congestion on the nation's electricity distribution systems.  By alleviating congestion, energy-efficient schools help improve the security of the nation's energy production and lessen the need for large distribution systems, a point of vulnerability for national security.

High-performance schools also serve as learning incubators on energy efficiency and the associated environmental advantages.  Schools are often hubs of local communities, touching students, parents, teachers, administrators, municipal agents, and service employees – making schools a natural vehicle for transmitting the national priority for energy efficiency and environmental protection.  EnergySmart schools can help reduce carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming, because energy conservation helps slow demand for new coal-fired and nuclear power generating plants.