Environmental Valuation & Cost-Benefit News

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In 2004 the Metropolitan Board of Public Education (MBPE) for the City of Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee awarded Siemens Building Technologies, Inc. a performance contract to provide comprehensive energy, environmental and operational improvements throughout the District's schools. As the initial five-year phase of the project nears completion, an impressive list of goals have been achieved, ones that are already beginning to yield substantial energy savings and positive environmental effects.

"It has been a massive project," says Joe Edgens, MBPE's Executive Director of Facilities & Operations, "and it is an accomplishment that communities across the state of Tennessee can be proud of. The School District is not only saving millions of dollars as a result of reducing energy consumption, the schools in the system are better, more comfortable learning environments for our students, teachers and everyone who either works in or visits public education facilities in Nashville. As we enter the next phase of the project with Siemens," Edgens continued, "the school community looks forward to achieving positive results that will expand on the success of the project's first phase."

Kirk Whittington, an Energy and Environmental Services account executive managing the project for Siemens Building Technologies locally agreed, noting "This is a long term partnership with many more improvements to come. Siemens looks forward to continuing the relationship, delivering added value to the students and staff while contributing overall to a healthier and more efficient learning environment."

Improvements to heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems were made to more than 30 schools, as well as completing lighting retrofits at 110 schools in the system. Water conservation measures have been instituted at over 50 area schools and chemical-free Flozone* water treatment systems were installed at 93 schools. More than 70 schools received comprehensive building controls upgrades and in 15 schools Siemens installed state-of-the-art building automation systems. The Nashville school district is the 64th largest in the country, with over 75,000 students. During the contract period, all area schools and school facilities, encompassing 187 structures, more than 14 million square feet and some 5,000 classrooms were involved in this massive project, one of the largest energy performance contracts achieved to date in the Southeastern U.S. As the next phase continues, the total value of the contracted work to-date exceeds $45 million.

The annual savings in energy and environmental impact are equally impressive. More than 100 million gallons of water are being conserved through the implementation of system-wide conservation measures and the implementation of the chemical-free water treatment process on HVAC chillers. System wide, energy and resource reductions are generating the equivalent of more than $2.9 million in total savings for Metro Nashville Public Schools. Likewise, the overall powerplant and HVAC system improvements are resulting in the reduction of greenhouse gases, in the aggregate amounts of 26,231,885 pounds of CO2, 53,093 pounds of NOx and 197,660 pounds of SO2.

During the contract period, Siemens Building Technologies has also exceeded the original mandate for small business and minority-owned subcontractor participation in these projects.
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For more information on Siemens Building Technologies, visit: www.usa.siemens.com/buildingtechnologies

*Flozone Services Inc. of Adamsville, Tennessee offers a chemical-free treatment method for HVAC chillers that maintains cleaner heat transfer surfaces than conventional periodic chemical dosing cleanout, according to the manufacturer.

Siemens Building Technologies, Inc. via PRNewsWire www.prnewswire.com
http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=ind_focus.story&STORY=/www/story/02-17-2009/0004973903&EDATE=
Press Release dated February 17, 2009