NASEO Publishes Report on How State Energy Offices Can Support Energy Efficient and Healthy K-12 Public Schools

NASEO released a new publication, Energy Efficient and Healthy K-12 Public School Facilities: Opportunities for State Energy Offices and State Education Agencies to Collaborate, detailing how State and Territory Energy Offices and their state agency partners can play an important role in supporting sustainable, energy efficient, and healthy K-12 public school facilities.

For State and Territory Energy Offices, school energy programs can be an opportunity to support multiple goals: workforce development, helping communities manage their energy costs, supporting community resilience, increasing student and teacher energy literacy, and meeting statewide building energy and emission reduction targets. This report presents opportunities and recommendations for State and Territory Energy Offices to collaborate with State Education Agencies to help local school districts with:

• Stakeholder engagement and decision-making,
• Energy data management,
• Facility design and planning,
• Access to funding and financing,
• Technical assistance for facilities management staff, and
• Compliance with codes and standards.

To help strengthen relationships between State and Territory Energy Offices, school officials, and education stakeholders and identify shared priorities, NASEO hosted a roundtable in Madison, Wisconsin on "Improving Energy Efficiency, Indoor Air Quality, and Educational Outcomes in School Facilities: Opportunities for State Energy Office Collaboration ". This meeting featured expert perspectives on federal and state investments and programs to construct net zero schools, deploy electric school bus fleets, and conduct energy efficiency and indoor air quality improvements, while helping to modernize and reduce operating costs for school districts across the country.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Building Technologies Office provided support for the both the report and the event.