PLANO — Just call them energy heroes. Working together to conserve energy, the staff members of Prestonwood Church exceeded energy savings projections for the just completed performance year by $353,662 — enough to pay the church’s natural gas bill for almost two years. The projections were set by the church and its energy conservation partner, Energy Education, Inc.

Prestonwood Church was projected to save $568,000 during the first year of its energy conservation program with Energy Education, Inc. The church finished the year with $921,662 in total savings.

“Surpassing savings projections is a significant achievement. Prestonwood Church has achieved this level of success by consistently implementing the people-oriented approach to energy conservation and maintaining productive efforts at all levels of the organization. We commend the church administration and other staff and church members for clearly fulfilling their commitment to being good stewards of the church’s money and the environment,” said Dr. William S. Spears, CEO and founder of Energy Education, Inc.

The program is having a significant — and positive — impact on the environment as well. The EPA estimates that every kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity avoided prevents the emission of 1.5 pounds of carbon dioxide, 5.8 grams of sulfur dioxide and 2.5 grams of nitrogen oxides. In the program’s first year, Prestonwood Church saved 6,638,379 kWh, the equivalent of 4,195 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions being prevented, 908 passenger cars not driven for a year, 477,741 gallons of gasoline or 107,552 tree seedlings grown for 10 years. And these figures don’t include conservation savings from water and natural gas. 

Energy Education, Inc.’s innovative energy conservation program is a win-win alliance that trains client personnel to create substantial energy savings, and is funded solely by the savings the program generates. Organizations can redirect additional saved energy dollars to ministry resources. Energy Education, Inc. has worked with more than 840 educational organizations across the nation, positively impacting the educational environment of over 11 million children and helping clients save more than $1.3 billion in 21 years.