Recognizing that energy efficiency and conservation is in the best interest of the St. Johns County School District and the students we serve, the Board adopted an Energy Management Program (EMP) in September 2008 to control and optimize the cost and consumption of energy and energy related products for all of our facilities.
The St. Johns County School District’s building footprint has been steadily expanding since the implementation of the EMP. In 2008 the SJCSD gross facility footprint was 4,977,748 SF (according to Florida Department of Education Annual Energy Reports). By the end of FY 2020, the District’s facility footprint went up by over 35% to 6,746,702 SF.
Additionally, student population throughout our District has been growing steadily and consistent with the growth trends throughout St. Johns County. In 2008, the St Johns County School District served 28,282 students. By the end of 2020, the student count went up by almost 50% to 42,278 students.
If District Leadership and the School Board did not implement efforts to increase energy efficiency and reduce waste, energy costs would have kept rising consistent with the growth rate of the District’s student population and facility area footprint. Total energy costs would also have been adversely impacted by the historical nature of rising energy and utility costs (see Projected Energy Cost estimate graph below). The implementation of the Energy Management Program provided a path for Principals, Building Maintenance Coordinators, and the District Energy Manager to work together to manage, monitor and conserve energy consumption at each school site and facility. As a result of these EMP efforts, the annual energy costs for St. Johns County School District did not increase as projected, but remained relatively flat, despite our continuous and significant growth of both students and schools (see Actual Energy Cost).
Since implementation of the Energy Management Program in September of 2008, the St. Johns County School District has realized a total cost avoidance of $74,486,787 (through December 2023).
Graphs are generated with Information/data obtained from the Florida Department of Education website (except projected energy cost). Annual Energy Reports can be viewed and downloaded from the Annual Energy and Maintenance & Operations Reports page.
