Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency coordinates an Americorps program, Minnesota GreenCorps, which aims to preserve and protect the environment state wide while training a new generation of environmental professionals.

Minnesota GreenCorps and Fond du Lac

Fond du Lac’s Air Program was looking for someone to tackle building energy efficiency.

Fond du Lac receives the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency news letter where the grant for a MN GreenCorps member was advertised.

The State of Minnesota B3 Energy Benchmarking Program has been developed by the State of Minnesota Department of Administration and Department of Commerce to help state and local governments improve the energy performance of their buildings by tracking and managing facility energy consumption.

Made in collaboration with the private design firm the Weidt Group.

Fond du Lac’s Building Portfolio

Fond du Lac Manages 26 publicly owned buildings that equal just over one million square feet of conditioned space.

Black Bear Casino and Resort

485,000 SFOtter Tail

Event Center Bingo HallGaming floor3 restaurants 2 hotels1 swimming

pool

Fond du Luth Casino Downtown Duluth

Casino 56,000 SF

Health and Human Services

Min no Aya Win Clinic 68,000 SF Tagwii Recovery

Center 6,000 SF Assisted living 8,500

SF Center for American

Indian Resources 16,500 SF

Fond du Lac Housing

Supported Housing 28,000 SF

Cloquet Elder Housing 16,000 SF

Sawyer Elder Housing 12,000 SF

Fond du Lac Schools Ojibwe School 86,000 SF Early Head Start 18,000 SF Head Start buildings 29,000 SF

Government Buildings

Fond du Lac Tribal Court/ Natural Resource Building 22,000 SF

Fond du Lac Tribal Center Administration Building and Cloquet Community Center 88,000 SF

Public Services Convenient Store

Gas and Grocery 7,500 SF

Police Station 5,000 SF

Housing Office 5,000 SF

Community Centers Sawyer Community

Center 36,000 SF Brookston Community

Center 25,000 SF Cloquet Community

Center housed in the same building as the Administration building 88,000 SF

Energy use burns fuels that contribute to poor air quality as well as global climate change.

Energy costs money and wasting energy means there is less money to spend on other programs.

Why do we Care about Building Energy Use?

Propane Natural Gas Steam Electricity Total

CO2 355,561 lbs 2,976,328 lbs 155,085 lbs 5,030,708 lbs

8,517,682 lbs

CH4 62.98 lbs 282.2 lbs 32.62 lbs 82.3 lbs 430.1 lbs

NO2 25.67 lbs 5.13 lbs 5.44 lbs 82.3 lbs 118.54 lbs

Climate Minnesota has the 3rd coldest winter in

the nation and experiences extreme temperatures

2012 Cloquet Temperatures

Vulnerability to Global Climate Change

Ecologically sensitive "hotspots" - Areas projected to undergo the greatest degree of species turnover

Why Benchmark Buildings?

You cannot manage what you cannot measure.

There is a disconnect between those who pay the utility bills and those who manage the buildings.

Data Collection Gathering 3 years of utility data

for all the buildings reservation wide proved challenging

The Utility will provide this information

Collect account and meter numbers and understand what those meters power

Push the utility to give you the best data possible

Entering Data in B3 Keying in data can be time

consuming.

It can go a lot faster if your utility can give you digital data (numbers you can copy and paste).

Keep a hard copy of the data.

Maintaining Data in B3 Historic utility data going back 3

years is great but it is vital to maintain current data as well.

We had to determine how we were going to collect that energy use data every month and who was going to enter it.

Analyzing the Data Now you know how much energy

your buildings use, GREAT! But what are you going to do with that information?

Benchmarking is a great tool to identify potential energy savings through both retrofit installations and more efficient building management.

Peer Review Tool

Reports Tool

Reports Tool

Baseline Tool

Benchmark Tool

Get Facility Managers Involved

Benchmarking is a great tool to identify poor performing buildings and create a plan for better managing the energy use through the building automation software.

Training building managers to use the benchmarking software and incorporating efficient building management training is a FREE way to save money and energy used.

Identifying and Prioritizing

Retro Fit Projects

Pool Covers The Cloquet Community Center is

housed in the Fond du Lac Tribal Center.

It has a large swimming, a small shallow children's pool, and a spa tub

These pools are heated to at least 70° F

Reducing the Costs of Operating a pool

Adding pool covers reduces the amount of energy dollars that evaporates off the pool.

Many nationwide case studies estimate the energy savings from pool covers from 30 % to 55%

Less evaporation means less make up water and less chemicals (also cost $) needed to treat the pool water.

Less evaporation and less chemicals used means less corrosion to the surrounding structures.

Update the HVAC System Early Head Start Building Used by the preschool education

program 18,000 SF containing classrooms,

offices and a kitchen. The building has electric

resistance heat in the ductwork with 2 exterior air handlers and 2 split system air conditioners

What Do the Numbers Mean?

Using the Benchmark tool helps you understand how much energy you could save if you bring the building up to the current energy code.

Looking Beyond the Numbers

What type of energy is being used to heat the building matters.

The Fuel Type Matters

HVAC Occupancy Sensors Black Bear Resort and Casino hotel

rooms 234,025 SF more than half of

square feet of the complexThe hotel rooms use the largest

portion of energy for the complex and a great deal of that comes from heating and cooling

Occupancy controls for the HVAC can cut down on energy used.

Infrared Occupancy Sensors

Completed Projects

Lighting Retrofits Lighting Retrofits are the low hanging

fruit of energy efficiency improvements.

Fond du Lac has been changing out their old lights for new more efficient one and it has paid off in energy costs and maintenance

Before

After

Large Space Air Management System Why ventilate a gym for 120

occupants when you have a gym class with 30 students in the space. Moving around that much air and conditioning outside air uses a lot of energy.

A large space air management system was installed at the Ojibwe school gym which included a variable speed drive as well as CO occupancy sensors.

Completed Projects Results This is data from the Large Space

Air Management system in the Ojibwe School which was completed in August of 2012.

Questions?