As part of Project ReCharge, students utilize STEAM concepts, skills, and real-world data to develop sustainability projects aimed at reducing energy and resource use in their homes, school, and community. Students research energy and sustainability issues within their community, work alongside industry professionals, and present their findings through Public Service Announcements, Green School Certification, Energy Star Certification, Civic Engagement Projects, and Sustainability Proposals.
Students are provided with the opportunity to present their projects to hundreds of school administrators, parents, community members, and decision-makers during the Project Recharge Celebration, where Envirolution announces winning projects as well as projects selected to be implemented throughout the school year. Funding is secured by several parties, including local school districts. We collaborate with CLEAResult and others to ensure accurate energy savings, and the rebates from NV Energy are then used to fund additional projects in the future.
Impact to Date
Project ReCharge has reached 223 teachers from 108 schools and 15 school districts, provided them with over 9,190 hours of professional learning, and engaged 65,000 students with an interactive, hands-on STEAM curriculum. This resulted in $1.29 million in savings based on 10,418+ MWh of energy savings as a direct result of student-driven sustainability projects. These savings are equivalent to removing 1,591 combustion cars from the road and powering 930 American homes for one year.
Green Business Program
Green Business Program (GBP) provides schools a framework that simplifies efforts to implement sustainable practices and offers the opportunity to become certified green schools. This program performs audits of schools and utilize a web-based software program that tracks and collects metrics related to energy, water, and resource use. In partnering with Envirolution, this program provides Project ReCharge students the opportunity to assist with the green audit of their school, which enhances their curriculum studies and provides them with real-world skills and hands-on experience. By becoming a green school, the school will save money, reduce the drain on local resources, and be listed in the GBP national database.
Past Projects
2021-2022 School Year
Projects Implemented
Eagle Valley Middle School – Composting
Anna, Jordan, Abby, Emilee, Alexis, Holly, and Taylor from Eagle Valley Middle School (EVMS) in Carson City, NV banded together to present a “Proposal for Reducing Food Waste by Composting”.
As part of Teneya Cramer’s ELA class, these students performed extensive research to discover how composting school lunches can make an impact in their community.
As a result of their efforts, the kitchen staff now puts aside scraps from lunch prep which are taken to the high school’s composting and vermiculture program.
By making composting an important part of their work, EVMS is providing a healthier meal and improving the environment and expects to reduce the cost to put food waste in landfills by 60%!
Eagle Valley Middle School – Pollution in Carson City
Lucas, a student in Kim Tucker’s STEM and Robotics class at Eagle Valley Middle School in Carson City, NV, won Envirolution’s sponsorship for his project “Pollution in Caron City”.
As a result of this proposal, during the 22-23 school year, Lucas and Envirolution will host three trash clean-ups around campus and nearby waterways, green spaces, and parks to improve downstream water quality in the Carson River.
Empire Elementary School – Green Biz Kids
The Green Biz Kids club, run by STEM Coordinator Adrianne Wiggins at Empire Elementary in Carson City, NV, has been bringing together students at lunchtime to discover changes they can make in their lives and school to encourage sustainability.
In 2022, students created a poster campaign and presentation for the 2022 Year-End Celebration. Envirolution was proud to select this innovative team and help them bring their fun and educational approach to conservation and sustainability to their local community.
Swope Middle School – Solar Panel Project
The recently renovated Swope Middle School in Reno, NV, took advantage of the opportunity to create a construction class taught by Mackenzie Kohler. Using the McKinstry live energy data dashboard, students identified how they could save money and continue to improve their school building by adding solar panels. The class applied for the NV Energy Community-Based Solar Resource Program and shared their work at Project ReCharge’s Year-End Celebration. We are very excited to announce that their project has been selected, and a partnership is being developed between Sol-Up and Washoe County School District to implement their plan.
CC Meneley Elementary School – Battery Recycling
CC Menely Elementary School’s 6-person Sustainability Club created a Public Service Announcement (PSA) video and posters about sustainability, non-renewable resources, and the importance of battery recycling. With their teachers, Christen Vice and Vivian Michalik, they were able to involve the community by facilitating a battery drive hosted by the Gardnerville, NV Elks Lodge in partnership with Redwood Materials. PSA flyers were shared in the community, on social media, and in the local newspaper. Students presented the results of their battery drive to the Envirolution Community at the Year-End Celebration, where they continued their work with Redwood Materials by encouraging attendees to bring their batteries to the event for recycling.
2020-2021 School Year
Dayton High School Composters
Raquel W in her junior year at Dayton High School created an engaging well thought out PSA for composting with the support of her teacher Aspen Childers. She supported her work with data about how the composters could be used in support of the culinary program and garden at Dayton High. Her hard work was awarded two 45 gallon composters that allow for the students to enrich the soil that helps their garden flourish!
Flag View Intermediate School Posters
Ms. DeLeon’s 5th grade class from Elko NV created and presented a project encouraging students to Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Her students created comics, posters, and slogans to help inform others of their work. Using the students’ art and slogans, posters were created for the school and community by Envirolution’s design intern, Juliana Ruffatto.
Dilworth Middle School Home LED Lighting
As a 7th-grade student in Ileah Kirchoff’s Dilworth Middle School class, Isai M completed a home audit of his lighting and created a proposal to have his miscellaneous bulbs updated with LEDs. Each year the LED lights will save his household 223 kWh and $27. They reduced their home’s annual carbon dioxide emissions by 356 pounds!
2019-2020 School Year
Carson Middle School Solar Window Film
In Michelle Hollis’s class at Carson Middle School a group of students proposed to have solar screens installed in the STEM hall for temperature management as well as student and teacher comfort. Sun King Window Tinting Services completed the project while involving students. The solar screens will save Carson Middle School on their cooling costs.
Dayton Elementary School Home LED Lighting
Our first home proposal! Deja A from Dayton Elementary School in Karon Dutcher’s 5th-grade class completed a home audit of the lighting in her house while on distance learning. She created a proposal to have her miscellaneous bulbs updated with LED’s. We were so impressed with her tenacity to complete this project. The LED lights will save her household 1,471 kWh and $125 each year. They reduced their home’s annual carbon dioxide emissions by 2,298 pounds!
Dayton Intermediate School Robotics Team “Save Power Hour by Hour“
DIRT students completed a lighting proposal and audit by counting all of the bulbs as well as the bulb wattage in order to determine the opportunity for energy savings. DIRT students created a skit where they played newscasters and performed at the First Lego League Robotics competition as well as for their district’s school board. They earned second place in the robotics competition! Envirolution hosted a volunteer event at the school removing over 2,000 fluorescent bulbs and replacing them with just over 1,000 LEDs. Helix Electric company and other volunteers retrofitted the school within 2 days.
- Project Results
- 1,101 Fixtures upgraded to LED
- 103,277 kWh saved
- $5,163.85 Energy Smart School Rebate
- $9,811 annual utility bill savings
2018-2019 School Year
Projected Savings/year
- kWh: 88,804
- Cost: $8,436
- CO2e: 62.9 metric tons
- ROI: 28.4 Months
Pyramid Lake Jr.Sr School
Project ReCharge students took what they learned throughout the year and created a whole school LED retrofit proposal which was funded and implemented in the summer of 2020. This student-driven project now saves the school over $4,400 in energy costs. The rebate of $4,400 from NV Energy will be used to help support future student projects.
GM Heritage: In 2019, Heritage Home-school completed a lighting proposal that replaced incandescent bulbs with LED bulbs. They had a negative return on investment of 4.3 months when they paired their savings with the NV Energy rebate! Each year the LED lights will save them 14,374 kWh and $1,509 and they have reduced their schools’ annual carbon dioxide emissions by 22,000 pounds!
2017-2018 School Year
Wooster High School
Students from Mr. Coli’s Energy Technologies CTE class performed lighting audits and data analysis on lighting upgrade options during the 2017-18 school year program. By the end of August, over 850 fixtures throughout the school were replaced with more efficient LEDs. Total savings: $72,020 and a reduction in the school’s annual CO2 emissions by over 467,000 lbs!
Sparks High School
Marie Smith’s students worked over nine weeks on their Project ReCharge proposals and were acknowledged for their efforts with an ice cream celebration hosted by McKinstry and Envirolution. In May 2018, 988 fixtures were replaced with LEDs throughout the high school. Total savings: $41,990 in energy costs and 272,289 lbs of CO2.
Dilworth STEM Academy
This project helped replace over 400 fixtures with energy-efficient LED lights. The Dilworth STEM Academy was able to save 129,000 kWh, $16,770 in energy costs, and reduce 108,747lbs of carbon dioxide emissions.
2016-2017 School Year
North Valleys High School
Mrs. Varner’s Physical Science Class and STEM Guest speaker Andy Dumond from CLEAResult worked on this energy savings proposal for North Valleys High School. Exterior wall packs were installed in August 2017. Eighty-two (82) 40W wall packs were installed with 18W LEDs. Total savings: 7,772 kWh or $1,010 (.13/kWh), 6,551 lbs of CO2 reduced (.843lbs/kWh) and a $388 rebate from NV Energy went back to WCSD.
2015-2016 School Year
Dilworth STEM Academy
Multiple student groups from multiple classes focused on lighting. WCSD had funding for the hallways, office and cafeteria. Completed in October 2016, 449 lamps were converted from 32W FL to 15W LED. Total saving: 33,501 kWh or $4,355 and 28,241 lbs of CO2 reduced (.843lbs/kWh) and $1,675 rebate back to WCSD.
Mendive Middle School
Multiple groups from multiple classes focused on lighting. WCSD had funding for the library and the project was completed in October 2016. (451) 32W FL lamps were replaced with (369) 15W LED lamps. Total savings: 20,379 kWh or $2,649 and 17,179 lbs of CO2 (.843lbs/kWh) was reduced. A $1,018 rebate was given back to WCSD by NV Energy.
2014-2015 School Year
Mendive Middle School
Multiple groups from multiple classes focused on lighting. WCSD had funding for the library and the project was completed in October 2016. (451) 32W FL lamps were replaced with (369) 15W LED lamps. Total savings: 20,379 kWh or $2,649 and 17,179 lbs of CO2 (.843lbs/kWh) was reduced. A $1,018 rebate was given back to WCSD by NV Energy.