In 2006, when the Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA) moved into an unused Portland middle school, the organization knew there was a lot of work to do. The building had been out of service and used for storage and training purposes for a number of years. When NAYA was ready to begin work on the middle school building, it was only natural to reach out to Energy Trust.

One critical renovation to the building was to upgrade the lighting throughout the 60,000-squarefoot space. First, NAYA enrolled as an Energy Trust trade ally to help facilitate its work experience training program for the construction trades. Participants in the NAYA program gain valuable work skills and help NAYA perform weatherization and other renovations on community properties.

NAYA’s construction team completed the electrical and lighting improvements, and Energy Trust consulted on the project. The high-performance lighting upgrade has helped NAYA staff be more productive, and allowed visitors and students to feel more comfortable while using the facility.

On top of the estimated annual savings of 22,300 kilowatt hours of electricity, NAYA installed a 107-kilowatt solar system to generate renewable energy. Energy Trust provided a cash incentive of $156,914 for both projects.