Lisa Randall is a Mainer. "Mainers are people who frown upon people using excess power, water and waste," she said. "My parents were raised during World War II and remember the days of rationing, so that had an influence on me."

Randall serves as Energy Conservation Program Coordinator for Santa Fe Public Schools, a position she has held since the job was created in summer of 2010. The former teacher (10 years at Agua Fría Elementary School, for instance) said the job is a good fit: "I've always been an environmentalist — but I know this is not a glamorous job to talk about."

The district had been talking for a couple of years about hiring a contractor to manage energy-conservation efforts before making it a permanent position. Randall said her salary (about $60,000) is funded by the Public School Buildings Act (commonly called House Bill 33) and thus does not come out of the district's annual operating budget.

Her goal is to work with her staff to build and maintain a conservation program that reduces energy use at every facility within the district — which includes about 2.3 million square feet, 32 sites, and 60 buildings. (The district has about 13,000-plus students and about 1,700 staffers in those buildings).

Randall's job goes beyond just reminding staffers to turn out the lights and shut down their computers when they leave work (though she does that too) or driving by schools at night to make sure there are no errant lights left on (which sometimes happens).

The district-wide effort includes placing occupancy sensors in all appropriate locations, using digital, programmable thermostats, ongoing audits of all utility accounts, an updated HVAC inventory, and individual energy audits at all schools.

"It's a lot of small actions that add up to one big difference," she said.

She estimates that the district has spent about $3.4 million on gas, sewer, water, recycling, and solid-waste costs between July 2010 and June 2011 — about $9,300 per day. In a report she gave to the district's Citizens Review Committee in November, Randall and General Services Division manager Paul Baca told the group that the district's conservation program saved $233,672.20 in the past year. The duo intends to present a similar report to the Board of Education early in 2012.

Randall and her staff have built a data base of utility use at every site. She wants to work that backward to establish cost savings, trends, and waste over the past few years. There will be a point, she said, where the district probably won't be able to reduce energy costs any further, but it can maintain a base minimum.

She isn't sure how many other school districts within New Mexico include an energy-conservation manager, but said Albuquerque has one, a point confirmed by John Miller, public-information officer for that district. Miller said that person, Ron Rioux, has been in the position for
12 years.

Up in Maine — Randall's home state — the Maine Department of Environmental Protection just began awarding grants to student groups to pursue energy conservation measures in their schools and to facilities managers to track energy use in schools.

Randall said she'd like to see student conservation groups form in every school here. "I want people to do it because they believe in it, and not because somebody is making them do it," she said.

Visit sfps.info and click on Departments, then General Services, and then on Energy Conservation Program for more information.

Contact Robert Nott at 986-3021 or rnott@sfnewmexican.com