ConsERvation

ConsERvation

 

East Rochester Union Free School District is committed to reducing our carbon footprint. Through our ConsERvation efforts, we have worked to minimize our waste, improve energy use and utilize renewable resources within our school district. 

 

 Examples of past and present initiatives that ER Schools have taken, include:

  • Recycling program: ER Schools separates paper and cardboard materials from our refuse stream and recycle according to industry best-practices.

  • Energy Performance Contract: A previous ER completed project included the upgrade of lighting and building controls throughout our campus and the addition of occupancy sensors to our lighting systems.  These upgrades are still generating energy savings today and the initial project was paid for by the energy savings that it created.

  • ER continues to utilize Green Seal Certified cleaning chemicals throughout the campus which have been certified by a not-for-profit third party reviewer to meet health, safety, and environmental quality standards.

  • Farm-to-Table (Grant): Utilization of food from local farms to incorporate into school meals. 

  •  Elementary Instructional Based Compost Learning: Elementary students have participated in composting their lunch waste. Students continued to learn about these positive environmental initiatives in their science classes.

  •  Our campus utilizes multiple building automation systems which help control energy usage by allowing scheduling of our cooling and heating setpoints. These systems also reduce electricity use through the application of variable frequency drives.  

  •  ER uses reusable lunch trays for food service that are washed and reused, eliminating significant paper and styrofoam waste.

  •  Single UPK-12 Building: ER’s single connected building, allows for reduction in staff and family commute to campus. 

  •  Students are encouraged to bike or walk to school to reduce emissions from vehicles and school buses.

  •  Turf infill: The infill material utilized in the turf at the Don Quinn Athletic Field is a ‘Nike Grind’ product made from recycled sneaker rubber. 

  •  Turf materials: Recycled turf infill installed in our courtyards allows us to reduce water consumption and decrease the use of gasoline powered tools to maintain this portion of the grounds. 

  • 2006 Fuel Cell: This was an effort that allowed the school to create its own electricity from a clean source for a length of time. The fuel cell has since been removed as a matter of reaching the end of its useful life expectancy.

 

Looking forward to the future, we continue to review and consider options such as:

  • Additional LED upgrades: We continue to change over all of our lighting to LED lightbulbs and upgrade our lighting to motion activated sensors through the capital improvement process. In the design phase of capital construction projects, we continue to review and consider the use of building materials containing recycled content such as: 

  • Flooring

  • Roofing

  • Ceiling Tiles

  • Woods

  • Metal studs

  • We are working on expanding the bottle fill drinking fountains throughout the campus to reduce plastic bottle waste.

  •  We are continuing to upgrade all classrooms/offices to roller shades vs. blinds.

  •  We are adhering to enhanced energy code requirements during construction projects which include the use of:

  • Water reducing toilets

  • Metered faucets and other water outlet valves

  • We are continuing to review solar power as an option when conducting building condition surveys and developing scope items for capital construction.