As LAUSD tightens belt, 'green' resolution helps trim water, energy costs
By Susan Carpenter/Los Angeles Times
While the Los Angeles Unified School District grapples with budget slashing, teacher layoffs, program cuts and increasing class sizes, a 3-year-old program has been steadily carving away at future water and electricity costs for the 14,000 buildings in the sprawling system. Since passage in 2007 of the Green LAUSD resolution, the district has been working to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and its energy and water use by 10% from 2007 levels by 2013. It also will install 50 megawatts of solar photovoltaic arrays, a move that could save the district more than $20 million annually on an electricity bill that normally costs $85 million. (more...)