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Pinellas and Des Moines Win Energy Star Award

  • Florida’s Pinellas County School District and Iowa's Des Moines Public Schools were recently selected as ENERGY STAR Partners of the Year by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S Department of Energy.

    The districts were two of 191 ENERGY STAR award winners honored this year for improving energy efficiency. ENERGY Star is the symbol for energy used by the federal government to provide credible and unbiased information that consumers and businesses can rely on to make well informed decisions.

    Pinellas County Schools earned the ENERGY STAR certification for 90 schools and saved $7 million in energy costs in 2019 alone. The district also partnered with a national energy and sustainability company Cenergistic in 2015 to implement an energy conservation program.

    The Des Moines school system earned the ENERGY STAR certification for 49 buildings and spent just $0.78 per square foot on energy costs, which is lower than the national average of $1.37. The school system has saved more than $19.3 million and prevented the emissions of more than 31,500 metric tons of carbon dioxide since 2008.