School District of Philadelphia receives Renew America's Schools Prize

SSM's Energy and Sustainability Services Department (Practical Energy Solutions) helped lead a second, successful application to the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Renew America’s Schools Prize and Grant Program.

After taking the lead role in preparing an application for the William Penn School District in 2023, which resulted in a $7.2 million grant award, SSM’s Energy Team partnered with the School District of Philadelphia and Philadelphia Energy Authority to apply for Round 2.

DOE named 21 winners of this overwhelmingly high-demand program and selected the School District of Philadelphia to receive an unrestricted $300,000 cash prize to further its sustainability planning efforts.

Read DOE’s announcement about our partnership here.

SSM’s Energy Team prepared the basis of this application by proposing a “kick-start” project for the district’s youngest students. This would involve upgrading 20 elementary school HVAC systems with high-performance, high-efficiency heat pump systems that create a foundation for electrified, net-zero schools and enable hands-on, clean energy, STEM-based learning.

This project proposes to add high-performance cooling and high-efficiency heating along with significant energy and greenhouse gas savings to some of the district’s most underserved elementary schools. It was drawn from the findings of three years of District-wide energy assessments performed by SSM’s Energy Team in its role managing the District’s compliance with the City of Philadelphia’s Building Energy Performance Program. SSM’s Energy Team has generated a database of energy systems and conditions across nearly 90 schools in the School District of Philadelphia. This database is now informing the development of cost-effective, low-carbon energy upgrade models that can be replicated District-wide while improving indoor air quality and learning conditions for students and teachers.

SSM’s Energy Team continues to serve the School District of Philadelphia in this role, as well as through grant support, strategic energy planning and hands-on energy education programs – including implementation of the Renew America’s Schools prize.