Renew Our Schools Competition

Renew Our Schools is a powerful 6-week energy conservation competition that gets students and staff in schools across the nation excited about responsible energy use. Schools use real-time energy gauges to monitor electricity use and see the immediate impact of making energy-saving changes.

Schools that enter get an eGauge installed on their school that will give them live data on how much electricity their school building is consuming. Then, the schools compete in a six-week competition to see who can conserve the most energy. The school with the most points (from conserving energy and completing energy actions) will win $1,500 to make permanent energy efficient updates within their school. The best part is that once the eGauge is installed, it is yours to keep and use in your curriculum to help with hands on learning for your students. 

 Resource Central , a non-profit based out of Colorado, manages the program portal and  KEEP (Wisconsin's K-12 Energy Education Program)  and  Focus on Energy®  will be here to support Wisconsin schools throughout the competition - helping you get an eGauge installed on your school, assisting you and your students with a school energy audit and providing educational energy resources. Since the onset of the program in Wisconsin in 2021, 40 schools have participated with many of those schools choosing to re-sign up for Alumni Competitions.

Schools will complete School Energy Actions (SEA's) throughout the competition to earn points. These School Energy Actions help bring energy education into the classroom and get the students involved and invested in their energy usage. There are required School Energy Actions that must be completed in order for schools to qualify for enrollment fee reimbursement ($250) and eGauge installation cost reimbursement (up to $1200) through Focus on Energy®. These required School Energy Actions include: creating a team, completing a school energy audit, setting energy goals, completing an energy data journal (weekly eGauge questions) and reflection. Use the arrows on the right and left edges in the picture below to scroll though some of the School Energy Actions.

The Renew Our School energy conservation competition runs twice a year, once in the fall and once in the late winter/early spring. If you are interested in starting the conversation with KEEP and Focus on Energy® to explore if this competition is a good fit for your school building, fill out the enrollment form on the Renew Our Schools Wisconsin webpage.  RenewOurSchools Wisconsin - Resource Central 

A successful school energy challenge brings the teacher and students, administrators, facility managers and IT Staff together to raise energy awareness and reduce energy use at the school. It takes the support of all three groups to see a change in the school community. The responsibilities of each role are listed below.

To give you a guideline for how the process goes, below is the road map that schools follow as they sign up, get the egauge installed and begin the competition.