Solutions & Innovations Districts Don’t Have to Reinvent the Wheel to be Innovative: Grab Energy Savings Where You Can

By Kristin Withrow, CSDA Communications Specialist

In-no-vate: (verb) to make changes in something established, especially by introducing new methods, ideas, or products.

Notice that in the definition of innovate, there are no qualifiers. To be innovative, one does not need to add the pressure of “more than others” or “never been done before” or any other such quantitative or qualitative measures. Though California as a state is certainly breaking the mold with its stated 2022 plan to achieve net zero carbon pollution, encompassing a bold set of plans for renewable energy, clean buildings, carbon removal and clean fuels, that sort of audacious ambition should not deter the onestep-at-a-time scoping of initiatives that are more scalable for a special district to achieve.

Case Study: When Rim of the World Recreation and Park District set out to adopt measures to reduce the district’s energy consumption, they were open to suggestions that would be innovative enough for their scope, yet affordable and achievable in scale. Recognizing the size of the district, budget factors and infrastructure would be factors in the solutions they sought, they weren’t looking to revolutionize the way recreation districts do business. They simply needed to modernize their buildings, find affordable ways to save on energy expenses, and do so without major disruption to their operations.

The district turned to Centrica Business Solutions for recommendations. “We work with clients to cut costs by installing energy efficiency measures, water controls, as well as solar and battery storage solutions and EV chargers,” explained Centrica Sales Leader Dan Mitchell. “We look at all the different measures possible at a site and provide an analysis to the client to let them see how much energy savings to expect. Many times, that savings pays for the upgrades over time.”

Centrica first performed a free preliminary feasibility assessment to develop a proposal for those measures they identify. Goals for “green” facility upgrades include a holistic approach to identify the projects that will achieve the end goal, beginning with an analysis of the energy bills to determine existing expense and consumption continued on page16...