I don’t know how many people know this, but we can be proud that Bullitt County Public Schools was awarded a national 2023 ENERGY STAR Partners of the Year Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. BCPS reduced energy use by 50% since 2016 and achieved recognition as an ENERGY STAR Certification Nation Premier member by earning the ENERGY STAR for eighteen (18) schools in 2022, and is a Sustained Excellence winner for one year. I think we can all be glad about this, and thank hard-working staff, site-based leadership, and school board members for their effort.
As local trend-setters, the school system is undoubtedly saving taxpayer money on energy bills, providing cleaner air for students in buildings, and making a commendable dent in heat-trapping carbon pollution let loose in Earth’s atmosphere.
As we come to Earth Day, April 22, there is good news for all of us. The familiar ENERGY STAR label program that helps homeowners with appliances and home heating is being upgraded and expanded as part of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that passed Congress in fall of last year. This IRA program is coming on line at all levels--for homeowners, renters, commercial buildings, churches and schools--as America sets out on a ten-year plan to, among other things, reduce energy bills, energy use and energy-related pollution by 75% by weatherizing our buildings and upgrading to highly-efficient electric.
I’d like to encourage everyone here to start watching for this in appliance stores and consider what plans you would like to make for yourself. Be aware that financial support is available, probably a lot more than you expect (see rewiringamerica,org/app/ira-calculator), because what we do for ourselves, we are actually doing to improve the lives of all our neighbors and our children’s children.
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Sources:
Energy use reduction source: rewiringamerica.org rewiringamerica.org/policy/householdreport graphic "Annual average energy use per U.S. household, kWh equivalents"
EPA Source: Email from Environmental Protection Agency via IFTTT
U.S. EPA Honors 2023 ENERGY STAR® Partners of the Year Award Winners in Kentucky
Region 04
FRANKFORT, KY. (March 28, 2023) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 4 and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) are honoring four ENERGY STAR partners in Kentucky for their outstanding leadership in promoting energy efficiency and tackling climate change.
“As we accelerate historic efforts to address climate change, public-private partnerships will be essential to realizing the scale of our ambition,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “I applaud this year’s ENERGY STAR award winners for working with EPA to deliver a clean energy future that saves American consumers and businesses money and creates jobs.”
“We congratulate our 2023 Energy Star Partners of the Year in R4 States for their leadership and commitment to taking action that will help us leave a healthier planet for future generations,” said EPA Region 4 Administrator Daniel Blackman. “The awardees demonstrate national leadership in cost-saving energy efficient solutions which help benefit communities in the Southeast.”
For more than 30 years, EPA’s ENERGY STAR program has supported the transition to a clean energy economy by fostering innovation, jobs, and economic development, while protecting public health. ENERGY STAR certified products, homes, buildings, and plants helped save American families and businesses more than 520 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity and avoid $42 billion in energy costs in 2020 alone.
Here are a few examples of how 2023 ENERGY STAR Award Winners in Kentucky are taking action:
- Shepherdsville, KY - Bullitt County Public Schools, a school district in Kentucky, sustained reductions in energy use of 50% since 2016 and achieved recognition as an ENERGY STAR Certification Nation Premier member by earning the ENERGY STAR for 18 schools in 2022. Sustained Excellence winner for one year.
- Lexington, KY - Lexmark International, Inc., a global technology company, certified 100% of products introduced in 2022, with over 85% of products earning the ENERGY STAR label.
- Louisville, KY - Schneider Electric, an energy management and automation services company, submitted nearly 160 buildings for ENERGY STAR certification and benchmarked more than 59,000 properties. Sustained Excellence winner for five years.
- Georgetown, KY - Scott County Schools, a school district in Kentucky, earned the ENERGY STAR for 12 schools and leveraged ENERGY STAR to engage stakeholders, district officials, custodians, teachers, and students. Sustained Excellence winner for six years.
Read more about the ENERGY STAR Awards and Award Winners’ achievements.
About ENERGY STAR
ENERGY STAR® is the government-backed symbol for energy efficiency, providing simple, credible, and unbiased information that consumers and businesses rely on to make well-informed decisions. Thousands of industrial, commercial, utility, state, and local organizations rely on their partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to deliver cost-saving energy efficiency solutions. Since 1992, ENERGY STAR and its partners helped American families and businesses avoid more than $500 billion in energy costs and achieve more than 4 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas reductions. More background information about ENERGY STAR’s impacts can be found at www.energystar.gov/impacts
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