This webinar was organized for the needs of school administrators who have to reduce the expenses on the consumption of energy. It was attended by energy managers, engineers, and managers, all of whom shared their views on how school can make energy savings. The findings of this webinar will be particularly useful for educational institutions however, but they are also applicable to other governmental organizations which have to struggle with the budget limitations. This is why I have found this video particularly interesting.
One of the most important issues that have been raised is that behavior of students and faculty contributes to excessive expenses. Many business administrators have argued that in many cases both teachers and students forget to turn off computers and lights.
This seminar has indicated that budget limitations can be overcome if school administration encourages every stakeholder to act responsibly. The participants of this seminar emphasized the necessity of involving different stakeholders. In particular, it is necessary to provide training to the staff, especially in those cases when new technologies are adopted.
More importantly, the school administration has to explain to teachers, students and parents how innovations can improve the work of educational institutions. The educators also stressed the importance of accountability and transparence. In other words, they argue that school administration has inform the community about the results which they managed to achieve.
Without it, the innovations, advocated by the administration, are rather unlikely to yield fruits. According to the data provided at the participants of this webinar, each school can save approximately $125.000 by changing its organizational behavior. This is why one should not underestimate this strategy.
Another argument that has been advanced by the participants of this seminar is that some of the technologies, used in modern schools have long become dated. The most eloquent example is the use of incandescent A-type bulb, which consumes much more energy than compact fluorescent bulbs.
Furthermore, the participants of this seminar pointed out several strategies which minimize energy consumption, namely geothermal cooling and heating, wireless internet, natural day lighting and so forth. It is expected that implementation of these strategies can cut their costs at least by 10 percent. The overarching theme of this webinar is that renewable energy technologies like solar panels can make educational organization cost-efficient.
Some participants of the webinar argued that school administrators are reluctant to new technologies because they do not either time or training. In their opinion, such a position is essentially flawed because the users of these technologies do not have to be energy managers. One should not suppose that the users will require immense technical competence. These are some of the lessons that I have derived from this webinar.
There are several lessons that I have learned from this video. The energy expenses of schools can be explained lack of appropriate organizational behavior. In other words, students and teachers are not always aware of the fact that energy consumption strongly depends on their attitudes and actions. Secondly a great number of modern schools do not adopt new technologies as quickly as they should.
The example of incandescent bulb eloquently illustrates this argument. At the given moment, the expenses on energy utilities constitute approximately 32 per cent of a school budget, and they can be spent on something else.
Works Cited
K12. Masters. Saving Energy Dollars while Providing an Optimal Learning Environment. 2010. Web.