Sustainable Jersey – Danielle Salah – 2015

Goals

Sustainable Jersey, a non-profit organization that guides municipalities and schools in New Jersey towards sustainability, enlisted the help of three EDF Climate Corps fellows in the summer of 2015, including Danielle Salah. They were tasked with operating in the field at local school districts to advance energy-efficiency projects. Additionally, the fellows helped prepare the schools for the Sustainable Jersey for School sustainability certification program and provided valuable feedback to Sustainable Jersey on the feasibility and effectiveness of its program.

Solutions

The immediate objective at each school district was to assess the state of energy management and tracking programs. Where they did not previously exist, Salah worked with energy stakeholders to set up a sustainable and useful energy tracking program. From there, she could use the collected energy data as well as the results of previously completed energy audits to analyze potential energy-efficiency projects at each school. Where appropriate, Salah recommended financing opportunities offered by the New Jersey Clean Energy Program. Finally, she prepared all of the schools for Sustainable Jersey for Schools certification, should they choose to pursue it, by completing documentation for all energy-related actions the schools might qualify for.

Potential Impact

The summer work of the three fellows left each participating school district in better position to achieve Sustainable Jersey for Schools certification. Additionally, each school had a better grasp of its current energy use and ways they could advance their energy-efficiency efforts. However, the fellows’ impact extends beyond the schools themselves. Sustainable Jersey was able to receive feedback from the fellows regarding the difficulties that school districts face in furthering sustainability-related initiatives. With this feedback, Sustainable Jersey has better insight into ways it can refine resources, incentives and certification actions to more effectively guide schools districts towards sustainability.