Sampson County Schools (SCS) received an award from Cenergistic Energy Conservation. Pictured, from left, Scott Burgin, Energy specialist for SCS, Dr. Larry Price of Cenergistic, Dr. Eric Bracy, SCS Superintendent; and Dewain Sinclair, Chairman of the SCS board of education.

Sampson County Schools was recognized for their energy saving behavior during a Wednesday board of education meeting.

The district achieved a 21 percent cost saving, which totaled $738,041 in 14 months since joining a strategic alliance with Cenergistic, a national energy conservation company.

Dr. Larry Price, Cenergistic division vice president and marketing specialist, presented the Environmental Excellence Award and certificate o energy savings worth $738,000.

“This award is an environmentally focused award to recognize the impact the organization’s energy program is having on natural resources,” Price said to the audience and the board. “It focuses on the environmental equivalent of a reduction in energy consumption contained by the program.”

According to the organization, SCS had energy reduction impact of 28,731 MMBTUs (1 million British thermal unit) . In simple terms, it’s the equivalent of 2,664 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions and taking 555 card off the road.

“It’s also equivalent to planting 68,000 trees,” Price said. “That’s the kind of impact the program is having on your county. It’s no doubt that your investment in energy conservation makes Sampson County Schools good stewards of the environment as well as good stewards of local tax dollars.”

The program examines all areas of energy used in the school system and works with SCS Energy Specialist Scott Burgin. Through the program, Burgin is trained to analyze all energy used and to make sure energy is used as efficiently as possible.

Price later thanked the school system for their leadership and support of the program. He also indicated that there’s still room for improvement.

“There’s still a lot of energy to be saved in your county,” Price said. “We still don’t have it all and we’re working on it. We need to keep our fire stoked about saving energy. It’s indeed way to provide great stewardship to our environment and for natural resources.”

In a news release, Dr. William S. Spears, chairman and founder of Cenergistic, said reaching this level of savings at this stage of the program is a significant achievement.

“Sampson County has done an excellent job of implementing Cenergistic’s organizational behavior-based approach to energy conservation and maintaining productive efforts at all levels of the organization. The administration and all staff members are to be commended for clearly fulfilling their commitment to being good stewards of the organization’s energy dollars and the environment.”

Spears also stated that strong support from everyone in the created an atmosphere of cooperation, which should continue success in the future.

“I am extremely pleased to present Sampson County with our Environmental Excellence Award.”