President Recognizes HISD’s Commitment to Saving Energy and Money

District one of only two in country to accept national target of increasing buildings’ energy efficiency by 20 percent through Better Buildings Initiative

December 02, 2011

President Barack Obama announced commitments from 60 major organizations, including HISD, to upgrade approximately1.6 billion square feet of commercial and industrial property to increase energy efficiency.

The Houston Independent School District will implement a comprehensive energy efficiency project with an ultimate goal of a 30 percent reduction in energy usage by 2015, including:

• Working with energy service companies to identify ways to cut energy use;
• Capital improvement upgrades;
• Energy retrofits for approximately 24 million square feet;
• Water conservation measures; and
• Behavioral and student-centered conservation activities.

Heading toward FY 2012, the district will be implementing an energy enterprise management system, an expanded and improved single-stream recycling program, an energy performance contracting program, and various other initiatives to continue to improve service delivery to schools, maximize the efficient use of resources, and reduce costs.

“We are serious about operational efficiency at Team HISD, including making sure that our schools provide safe, energy-efficient classrooms where our kids can see that their behavior can change their immediate environment,” said HISD Superintendent Terry Grier.

Read the full press release (.pdf).