Every day, nearly 5,000 students attend classes across Camas School District. That’s a lot of students, and a lot of facilities to maintain. Working with Energy Trust and NW Natural, the district made upgrades that are saving energy and money, while also improving their schools’ learning environments.

It all began in 2016, when Camas voters passed a bond measure that enabled the district to construct new schools. The bond also made way for improvements in existing facilities. The resulting energy-efficient upgrades included custom demand control ventilation, classroom CO₂ sensors, a natural gas-fired condensing boiler, condensing natural gas tank water heaters, custom building controls and custom variable frequency drives.

The improvements are reducing operations and maintenance costs—not to mention creating more comfortable and healthier building environments. And that’s just the beginning.

Money saved through these efficiencies meant more funds were available to launch additional improvement projects. Like the $165,900 in Energy Trust cash incentives—made possible by NW Natural’s Washington ratepayers—that Camas School District applied to additional upgrades. “Energy Trust estimated the savings for us upfront,” said Jessica Beehner, operations supervisor. “Understanding how much we’d save, plus knowing we’d receive cash incentives, helped the district move forward on these projects.”