State Policies
According to this Delaware Department of Education Summary, Delaware school districts engage in a number of high performance practices including building energy benchmarking, favorable energy acquisition, employment of energy coordinators, LEED design, utilization of energy efficient technologies, and implementation of energy efficient policies.
Energize Delaware, an initiative of Delaware’s Sustainable Energy Utility, supports a Performance Contracting program for schools and other public buildings. Performance contracting allows a school to enter into an agreement with an Energy Services Company (ESCO) that will evaluate a facility’s energy/water usage, recommend conservation measures, and guarantee their savings in a turnkey package that often requires no upfront cost.
To aid local school districts and facility managers through the performance contracting process, Energize Delaware has compiled a Program Guidebook, a diagram of the energy performance contracting process, and a pre-qualified list of Energy Service Companies, and a list of answers to frequently asked questions.
Highlighting Success
The state of Delaware has 11 ENERGY STAR certified Schools and three LEED-certified schools.
Feature Your High Performance School Design Work
Are you an architect or engineer who has worked on a High Performance School in this state? You can download and fill out our questionnaire and NEEP will use it to complete a case study, highlighting your firm's exemplary work on high performance schools. We use these case studies on our website, webinars, and conference presentations, and often invite architects or engineers to speak about their work in these venues.
For More Information
The High Performance Schools Exchange offers presentations and trainings to design and building professionals as well as school administrators and committees. These are available at no cost and can be scheduled by contacting Carolyn Sarno at csarno@neep.org or at (781) 860-9177 x119 or John Balfe at jbalfe@neep.org or at (781) 860-9177 x109.