Volume 29, Number 4
July/August 2013

Sultans of Sustainability

Districts hire new managers to cut energy and save money

by Colleen Gillard

 

A public school student in Cambridge, Mass. composts her lunch leftovers.

Despite tight budgets, school districts from Cambridge, Mass., to Castle Rock, Colo., are creating new jobs to lead efforts in reducing energy consumption and promoting healthy environments for students and their staff. In doing so, they are learning that helping the environment can also make financial sense—something colleges and universities have known for years but school districts are just beginning to discover.

Sustainability manager Lee Smit, who oversees 6 million square feet of building space in Colorado’s 64,000-student Douglas County School District, based in Castle Rock, saved the district $15 million over the past six years just by eliminating waste.