Sustainable Jersey – Dan Wilkins – 2022
Goals
Sustainable Jersey provides resources, training, and grants to support local governments and school districts as they pursue their sustainability goals. Their flagship certification program provides a framework for sustainability initiatives proven to reduce carbon emissions, cut energy costs, and tackle climate change.
Sustainable Jersey enlisted Dan to support and rapidly accelerate the energy tracking and energy efficiency projects of East Amwell Township, the Borough of Fanwood, Clinton Township, and Delaware Township School District.
Solutions
Dan met with clients to identify goals and led data collection and analysis efforts across 21 buildings to understand historical trends in energy usage. After reviewing building age, square footage, and renovation history, benchmarking reports were created to compare the performance of facilities under his scope to national statistics of similar building profiles.
Dan then worked with his clients to identify energy savings programs that best fit their needs, utilizing state and utility-funded programs to reduce energy usage and costs. Simultaneously, Dan helped clients document these savings to apply for Sustainable Jersey certification.
At each of his clients, Dan was also able to pursue additional energy-focused initiatives, ranging from installation of EV charging infrastructure to conducting municipal fleet inventories to create roadmaps for vehicle electrification.
Potential Impact
Through Dan’s analysis and recommendations, opportunities for a total reduction of 400,000 kilowatt hours of electricity usage annually, and an offset of 3,975 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions annually were identified and documented as a result of past and current energy efficiency efforts. In addition, the new energy efficiency projects proposed are projected to save over $40,000 across multiple municipalities.
Development of a streamlined energy tracking system at each municipality was also a key achievement, through the development of training material and continuous communication with staff to ensure energy tracking remains a priority.
