Through its International Awards Program, the Association of Energy Engineers (AEE) acknowledges the important achievements being made in energy and shines the light on the work being done in energy by individuals, organizations, agencies, and corporations. Loudoun County Public Schools was presented with the International Award for Institutional Energy Management on September 21st at the 39th World Energy Engineering Congress in Washington, DC.
This award is presented to a public sector institution, agency, or organization such as City, County, State, or Federal; a University or K-12 (kindergarten through 12th grade, either public or private), etc. for outstanding accomplishments in developing, organizing, managing and implementing its comprehensive energy management program, and for superior service to the Association. There is only one winner of this award each year.
The AEE Website describes why LCPS won the award in the following manner: (view on AEE site)
Loudoun County Public Schools
In order to reduce energy consumption in all the facilities within the District, the Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) created a team of students, parents, faculty members, and other community members called the Energy Education Team (EETeam). The goal of the EETeam is to create a culture where everyone who uses an LCPS facility understands how they can contribute to energy efficiency and conservation and is actively taking part in the program. The program has a motto that sums up the program very nicely: “Every dollar that pays an unnecessarily high energy bill could be spent for a much better purpose – teaching children.” The EETeam has two main focuses: energy efficiency and energy conservation. From program inception to the present, LCPS has saved over $70 million in energy costs. This is a reduction of 28.8% when compared to the Baseline Adjusted to Current Conditions. Energy reductions total over 3.6 billion kBtu and are equivalent to over 300 thousand metric tons of CO2 emissions.