Chippawa, School Board goes green, saves a healthy sum

An exuberant gathering between staff and students occurred on Wednesday morning at Chippewa Secondary school as North Bay Hydro presented a rebate cheque totalling $172,367 to the Near North District School Board.
 
North Bay Hydro was also on hand to congratulate the Near North District School Board on their energy-efficiency upgrades.

The school was retrofitted the previous year to be highly energy efficient in it's design, it's fixtures and it's use of electricity.

Evident today was the fruits of their labour with Hydro producing the rebate cheque, large in both size and savings.
 
Geof Botting, Director of Education for the Near North District School Board, says that the purpose of the presentation was to thank everyone involved for being such positive role models to the community in what is a somewhat convoluted subject of energy efficiency.

"It's an amazing thing when you see communities like the high school and hydro teaming up in such a successful effort that both saves energy and helps keep a cleaner environment," Botting says.

The amount of work done in eight area schools was extensive, retrofitting hundreds of lighting fixtures, new exit signs and ceiling mounted occupancy sensors.

The School Boards will now benefit from reduced energy consumption and savings month after month.
 
Botting says that they've invested over $500,000 in energy incentives and a year later have received almost 30 percent back in terms of rebates.

"That's a pretty easy return on our investment," he says.

It also proves that, by doing the little things as a group, it adds up to large savings and a greener community.

"We're sure the lessons learned by the students will translate in some degree into their future lifestyles," Botting says.

North Bay Hydro is hoping this announcement will encourage other groups and companies to take part in energy-efficient retrofits, explore rebate possibilities, and help use less energy with more efficient technologies.

As well, the Electricity Retrofit Incentive Program gave the NNDSB an equally attractive reason to take part: financial rebates.

North Bay Hydro is encouraging other organizations, large and small, to consider looking into the various incentive and conservation programs that are offered.
 
Over the past 3 years, North Bay Hydro has worked with over 600 business to help them reduce electricity consumption and costs providing over $1.1 million in incentives.

Hydro's Chief Operating Officer Todd Wilcox says that he's pleased to see the School Board using the program.

"We've helped many commercial and industrial businesses with improvements that made their lighting systems more efficient," he says.

"Now it's exciting to see those schools starting to get on board."

Wilcox says they'll save money month to month, and at the same time were able to benefit from the rebate programs.

"Hopefully we can work with more eduction facilities in the future."

Kathy Hewitt, Chairperson of NNDSB, says that she's pleased with the results of the upgrades.

"The Board is already realizing significant cost savings by spending less money on energy at eight of our schools in the City of North Bay," she says.

"With our continued participation in the Electricity Retrofit Rebate Program, we look forward to even more energy and cost savings at more schools in the future."