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Wednesday, March 31, 2010

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Brainerd School District chosen for ESM system

The Brainerd School District was selected as the only district in the U.S. to receive the benefits of an in-depth facilities management program that will increase efficiencies in district facilities as well as reduce energy and maintenance costs and much more, according to a news release.

Johnson Controls is implementing a $70,000 Enterprise Sustainability Manager system in two of the district's facilities beginning April 1, at no cost to the district.

"ISD 181 is always seeking new ways of improving learning for our young people, while at the same time building on our commitment to operating in an environmentally responsible manner," said Brainerd Superintendent Steve Razidlo. "This one-of-a-kind partnership with Johnson Controls will help the district identify many areas for improving efficiencies and saving tax dollars now and in the future, allowing us to dedicate more funds to programming for students."

Like most school districts, Brainerd schools has many thermostats, humidity controls, motion sensors, security devices and other equipment manufactured by a wide variety of companies that typically cannot effectively communicate with one another. To remedy this, Johnson Controls will install sophisticated hardware and software to gather and "translate" all this data from existing Brainerd schools into useful information that can be easily monitored in real time.

Implementation of the program is scheduled to be completed by July, at which time Johnson Controls will formally present the results to the district. Johnson Controls will then maintain the system for an additional two years, also at no cost to the Brainerd School District.

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