The Thames Valley District school board has earned a gold star for going green.

The board was honoured for outstanding achievements in reducing energy consumption this week.

Peter Love, Ontario's chief energy conservation officer, presented the board with a certificate of recognition from the Ontario Power Authority.

Love praised the board for leading by example with a massive energy efficiency program, raising the bar on environmental education for students and saving taxpayers money.

Chris Dennett, the board's communications manager, said the award was for Thames Valley's Better Schools Partnership, a broad retrofit program introduced in 2001 that has produced results.

The board manages and maintains about 200 buildings in London and Middlesex, Elgin and Oxford counties, some of them about a century old, he said.

"The cost of maintaining these buildings has been a concern for the board for some time, particularly when it comes to the use of energy," Dennett said.

Faced with rising energy bills in aging buildings, the board turned to Ameresco Canada, a company that specializes in facility renewal and asset planning, he said.

Since 2001, Ameresco has guided the board in its endeavour to make its stock of 197 buildings and 229 portables more energy efficient, said Dennett.

The retrofits include a range of measures, such as boiler/chiller replacements, lighting upgrades, motion sensors, computerized building controls, water conservation and improved insulation.

Some changes have been physical and others behavioral, said Dennett, referring to such things as turning lights and computers off at night and closing doors to control temperatures.

The board has invested about $36 million in physical changes, mostly in the past three years as a result of the availability of special provincial funding for such upgrades, said Dennett.

It has reduced its annual energy costs by $2.7 million, lowered carbon dioxide emissions by 26,735 metric tonnes and conserved 386 million litres of water, equivalent to the water in 16 Olympic swimming pools.

The CO2 drop was equivalent to taking 4,456 cars off the road.

Thames Valley school board initiatives have been "energy-based solutions at a time when energy costs continue to soar," said Tony DaSilva, Ameresco Canada's chief operating officer.

They've helped the board reduce operating costs and odeliver school renewal over the long term, he said.

"The board wants to have a smaller environmental footprint," said Dennett. "It also wants to do everything it can to control costs."