Among Energy Stars, schools outnumber businesses 5:1

Businesses will lead the way to a sustainable tomorrow, we’re often told. And corporations — not governments — know best how to maximize efficiency and eliminate waste.

But an interesting fact emerges from the latest list of US Energy Star Leaders, organizations singled out by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for having done the most to improve the energy efficiency of their buildings: most of them are public schools.

Out of 210 organizations the EPA has recognized as Energy Star Leaders since 2004, 176 (84 percent) fall under the category “K-12 education.”

Certainly, businesses that made the list operate numerous buildings across the country Food Lion, Giant Eagle, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, Office Depot and Staples. Staples, for instance, runs more than 1,500 retail stores and 200 distribution centers, and had achieved Energy Star status for more than 140 of those facilities as of early 2011. But it shouldn’t be surprising that school districts are feeling a special motivation to reduce their energy consumption (and bills) these days, as a few sample headlines from just the past few days illustrate (“Pittsburgh Public Schools Told to Find More to Cut,” “Schools Close Doors as Budgets Tighten” and “Haley’s Proposal Would Cut Money for Education”).

Schools are often first on the chopping block when states need to cut spending, according to “The Fiscal Survey of States,” a spring 2011 report by the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers. “Out of the 23 states that made mid-year cuts, 18 states reduced K-12 education, and 18 states cut higher education.”

Across the US, those mid-year budget cuts added up to $1.8 billion K-12 schools and $1.2 billion for higher education.

That probably helps to explain not only why there are so many school districts among the EPA’s Energy Star Leaders, but why the first leader to improve efficiency by a massive 60 percent was Indiana’s Decatur County Community Schools. According to the EPA, that relatively small district’s (with some 2,500 students) efficiency efforts have helped it to save more than $1 million in energy costs so far.