Olympia School District’s partnership with Puget Sound Energy boosts energy savings

In the past two years of the Olympia School District’s (OSD) ongoing partnership with Puget Sound Energy (PSE), the district has saved more than 450,000 kilowatt hours in electricity and 35,000 therms in gas.

The amounts saved by the district is equivalent to a whole year CO₂ production for about 66 homes, which need about 500 acres of forest to capture CO₂.

At a meeting on Thursday, March 13, 2025, PSE Energy Management Engineer Diego Rojas reported joint efforts with the district as part of a Commercial Strategic Energy Management (CSEM) partnership.

“We're here to kind of build a program where we focus on saving energy at the schools … and we look to save energy mostly in low and no-cost waste,” Rojas said.  

Rojas said that the school district has finished its second year in the CSEM program, and will finish its third year in 2025.

Rojas said the value of the program is just over $125,000 after factoring in savings.

Sustainability goals

Executive Director of Operations Frank Wilson said the district’s outcome 6 focuses on students’ contribution to making a sustainable OSD.

Superintendent Patrick Murphy said the district’s partnership with energy partners resulted in two large schools — Capital and Olympia high schools — meeting the Clean Buildings Standard.

“This has been a real focus of our overall district improvement plan. It was part of our student outcomes that were generated about creating a sustainable school district,” Murphy said.

OSD and PSE representatives meet monthly to talk about projects related to energy management.

PSE also held six site visits to the school district, walking through buildings to improve energy-saving measures, such as adding controls to lighting, fixing electrical controls and ensuring new standards are in place.

Climate Corps Fellows

Rojas also talked about the Climate Corps Fellows, an initiative that PSE helps fund under the CSEM program.

Budding climate professionals are placed in districts to implement climate change mitigation and resiliency projects. ​

The district receives the support of the fellows, who in turn gain real-world experience in sustainability project implementation. 

So far, there are two fellows in the OSD — Jenna Davidson and Grace Yockey.

Clean Buildings Accelerator

Rojas also showcased the Clean Buildings Accelerator (CBA), a free program that readies organizations for compliance with the new Washington’s Clean Buildings Law (HB 1257, 2019).

The program helps unpack the law, meets organizations on where they are at in energy use, and teaches proper compliance through a hands-on approach using the organizations' own buildings.

“This school district was the first district in Washington to get their high schools in compliance with that law … and actually, they were the first customer in our program to do that as well. So they are leading the pack there,” Rojas said.