San Antonio ISD Energy & Sustainability Program

The Energy & Sustainability program at the San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD) began in 2017. While fragments of energy management had been done in prior years, no district-wide program existed. Its intent was to establish an energy management program that would reduce energy and water consumption and the associated utility costs, while also establishing policies and procedures to standardize and grow sustainability efforts such as recycling. With considerable support from SAISD leadership, the program was able to complete numerous accomplishments in the first year and achieve over $1 million in energy savings.

The Energy & Sustainability program has goals to achieve significant energy and water savings by encouraging resource conservation while also providing educational lessons as part of energy upgrades at campuses. One example of this is the lighting upgrades, where staff perform hands-on lessons on lighting efficiency. Students take measurements of different lighting types and quantify how efficient each technology is. Students are then shown how this applies to the lighting upgrades at their campus.

Since the inception of the program, the Energy & Sustainability program has saved over 66 million kilowatt hours, 435 thousand therms of natural gas, and 46 million gallons of water. As a result, SAISD has seen over $1.7 million worth of energy rebates for their district.