Minnesota Schools Cutting Carbon

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About Minnesota Schools Cutting Carbon: Minnesota Schools Cutting Carbon is a joint program between the Department of Commerce Office of Energy Security, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, and Clean Energy Resource Teams, funded by a grant from the Legislative-Citizens Commission on Minnesota Resources. The program helps students and schools save on energy costs by giving student-led teams opportunities and resources to reduce their school’s carbon footprint.

How much are sponsorships? School Sponsors can participate at three levels:
Bronze Level at $500, Silver Level at $1,000 or Gold Level at $1,500

How do I begin? You can look at the Minnesota Schools Cutting Carbon participating schools and pick a specific school you would like to sponsor OR you can pick a technology or action (energy efficiency, wind, solar, recycling, carpooling) and coordinator Patrick Santelli will send summaries about the school(s) that are pursuing that course of action to help you choose a school to sponsor.

Then what? Patrick will put you in direct contact with the “coach” of you school’s carbon cutting team and he/she will help route the sponsorship through the school’s accounting system.

What is the sponsorship used for? You, as the sponsor, can be prescriptive with your sponsorship (it has to go towards energy efficiency upgrades at the school, for example) or you can let them use the money for any carbon-related project as they see fit. All Minnesota Schools Cutting Carbon schools received a $500 grant summer of 2009, which was intended to act as seed money for student projects, and in the fall of 2009 ten schools will be awarded $20,000 in a competitive grant process. Your sponsorship will begin during 2010.

What have the schools done already? Many of the schools have posted their work on the Schools Cutting Carbon Web site—each school has its own page. Students, teachers and building operators have participated in an energy walkthrough with Environmental Resource Management (ERM). Students actively participated in ERM’s walk through in several ways, including working with tools that are used during an energy audit. For example, the students took infrared pictures, measured daylighting levels, measured energy consumption of equipment such as vending machines and water coolers, and took other readings. To learn more about what schools are doing, click here to browse through the participating schools.
 

Sponsorship Rewards

 
What you’ll get: Your organization’s logo, sponsorship level, and the school that is being awarded will be featured prominently in the Minnesota Schools Cutting Carbon monthly newsletter that goes out to the 100 participating schools as well as staff and supporters of the Minnesota Schools Cutting Carbon Project. In addition, your organization’s name and web link will have a permanent space on the “Sponsorship Program” page of the Minnesota Schools Cutting Carbon website. In 2011, as the project comes to an end, we are planning to have a display at the Capitol and will thank all sponsors at that event.

Gold Level ($1500)

• One month “Sponsor of the Month” highlight on homepage of Web site
• “Success story” feature in the newsletter
• Display of logo at all conferences Minnesota Schools Cutting Carbon attends
• Logo in the monthly newsletter
• Official thank you in the monthly newsletter
• Logo and summary of organization on the Sponsorship Program section of Web site
• Display of the logo at Minnesota Schools Cutting Carbon exhibit at the Capitol
• Feature in the newsletter with the winning school

Silver Level ($1000)

• “Success story” feature in the newsletter
• Display of logo at all conferences Minnesota Schools Cutting Carbon attends
• Logo in the monthly newsletter
• Official thank you in the monthly newsletter
• Logo and summary of organization on the Sponsorship Program section of Web site
• Display of the logo at Minnesota Schools Cutting Carbon exhibit at the Capitol
• Feature in the newsletter with the winning school

Bronze Level ($500)

• Logo in the monthly newsletter
• Official thank you in the monthly newsletter
• Logo and summary of organization on the Sponsorship Program section of Web site
• Display of the logo at Minnesota Schools Cutting Carbon exhibit at the Capitol
• Feature in the newsletter with the winning school