YES! awards were presented within each cohort. Unless otherwise noted, Grand Prize winners received $1,000; Second Place winners received $750; Third Place winners received $500; and all Category Award winners received $250 each.

See what each team accomplished by reading more on the Teams page.

Grand Prize

• Westbrook-Walnut Grove
• Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City
• Royalton

2nd Place

• Sleepy Eye
• New London-Spicer
• Tie: St. Cloud Apollo/Rocori ($625 each)

3rd Place

• Mankato West
• Litchfield

Category Awards

Energy Efficiency & Conservation

For achieving great energy-related outcomes this season, and outlining the energy saved or to be saved in the future due to their work:

• Mankato West
• Lac qui Parle Valley
• Kennedy Community (St. Joseph)

Creativity & Innovation

For showing a new way of addressing challenges or using a new innovative technology or process to achieve their project goals:

• Glencoe-Silver Lake
• Lac qui Parle Valley
• New York Mills

Community Involvement

Demonstrated a high level of community outreach and involvement in their work:

• Westbrook-Walnut Grove
• Litchfield
• Rocori

Big Bang

Team with the most dramatic and effective impact in their community with a quick, high-hitting community involvement event or project:

• Sleepy Eye
• Eden Valley-Watkins
• Royalton

A special THANK YOU to this year’s award sponsors:

• GFW:  The GFW YES! team is kicking off their Earth Week on Earth Day and will spend the week implementing environmental activities for students in all three of the school buildings in their district.
• Rocori:  The Rocori YES! team participated in the Earth Day Expo at St. Cloud State University
  

  The Rocori YES! team collected used sneakers to be reused and recycled through the GreenSneakers Program.

  where they collected used sneakers for the GreenSneakers Eco Challenge.  They have also been collecting sneakers from members of their school and community and will continue to do so until the end of the day today.

• Sleepy Eye:  The Sleepy Eye YES! team is putting on Earth Week activities, which will emphasize educating students in grades 7-12.
• Springfield:  The Springfield YES! Team members wanted to bring attention to the amount of energy that is used during the school day.  They decided to ask teachers to turn off their lights during one class period on Earth Day.  Students will be encouraged to wear black to school today, bringing attention to their project.  The first 90 students to arrive at school in black on Black Out Day will receive a YES! water bottle with an energy message inside.  The students will then calculate how much energy was saved during the Black Out.

The Sleepy Eye YES! team proudly displaying their 2011-2012 YES! awards

A panel of judges selects a recipient team for each of these following awards based on the teams’ Energy Action Projects. Teams are judged within their cohort and teams in each cohort will be awarded first, second and third place overall prizes. In addition, four teams in each cohort will be awarded a category prize for their demonstration of excellence in the respective category.  This year the awards are:

• First Place $1,000
• Second Place $750
• Third Place $500
• Community Involvement Award $250
• Energy Conservation & Efficiency Award $250
• Creativity & Innovation Award $250
• Big Bang Award (the most dramatic and effective impact in their community with a quick, high-hitting community involvement event or project) $250

Judging will take place on three separate dates for the three cohorts:

• Monday, April 29th for the West-Central cohort
• Tuesday, April 30th for the Southern cohort
• Thursday, May 2nd for the Northern cohort

If you are interested in participating as a judge, please contact us at sayyes@youthenergysummit.org.

Representative Tim Walz visited Mankato West High School to talk to the students about energy and the environment. (Photo courtesy Eric Koser, Mankato West YES! Coach)

Representative Tim Walz visited Mankato West High School recently to talk about energy and the environment. He also got to hear from some YES! students about the great work they are doing to eradicate polystyrene trays from their school cafeteria.  The Mankato West YES! students have calculated that their school is currently throwing away around 135,000 trays per school year!  Come May, all of those polystyrene trays will be replaced with washable, reusable trays.

Hear what Rep. Walz has to say about the Mankato West YES! team here:
http://www.keyc.tv/story/21874834/tim-walz-visits-mankato-west-high-school

And, read what the Mankato Free Press has to say about Rep. Walz’s visit to Mankato West High School here: http://mankatofreepress.com/local/x2055657060/Walz-talks-energy-politics-at-West-classroom

Members of the Mankato West YES! Team at the 2012 YES! Fall Summit

The Mankato West team was dismayed to learn that their school throws away 750 Styrofoam lunch trays every day.  They decided to tackle this problem and calculated the financial costs and environmental benefits of switching to reusable trays.  They have been meeting with members of the food service, building and grounds, and administration in their school to make a switch to reusable trays possible.  Brian Gersich, Principal of Mankato West High School remarked, “In the Mankato schools, we are assuring learning excellence and readiness for a changing world, and these students are working hard to embody this.”

Lac qui Parle Valley

The Lac qui Parle Valley YES! team learning about passive solar greenhouses at the Milan Winter Workshop

The Lac qui Parle Valley YES! Team, now in its 5^th year, has been busy again this season with several projects.  The main focus of the team this year has been the start of a 20′ x 40′ outdoor solar greenhouse.  The below ground portion was completed in September and the framing was well under way before the snow began to fall.  They are waiting for the snow to melt so they can finish before the end of this school year. They hope to begin the 2013-2014 school year with fresh greens sprouting!

Rocori

Members of the Rocori YES! Team at the Kennedy Community School Winter Workshop

The Rocori team was introduced to a valuable resource at one of the YES! Winter Workshops: Doug Lien of Tri-County Solid Waste.  Doug provided the team with several different types of recycling containers to try at their school and determine which works best.  Through discussion with Doug, the team set up an action plan for using grant funds from the Southwest Initiative Foundation and YES! seed funds through the Environmental and Natural Resources Trust Fund to purchase containers for their building and signage for the containers they already had. Barb Omann, the Rocori YES! coach remarked, “We wouldn’t have this connection [to Doug Lien] if it weren’t for YES – so we can’t thank you enough! He’s an amazing resource!”.

See more of the exciting projects YES! teams are working on by clicking here.

Larry, along with his wife Sharon and three children, moved to Slayton, Minnesota 26 years ago.  After a career change, Larry thought he would make a go at being self-employed.  Larry and a friend founded Backup Power Source in 2002.  Backup Power Source provides off grid, grid assist, and grid tie-in products.  These technologies make it possible to supplement fossil fuel energy use or even replace it all together with sustainable technologies, such as solar-electric panels or wind turbines.

One of the off grid solar battery backup “Welcome to Windom” signs installed by Backup Power Source

In Larry’s eyes, realizing that the solution to energy dependence and supply is a long-term process is one of the most important things we can do.  Larry hopes to grow Backup Power Source into a two to three million dollar business with 10 employees, six outside sales people and a presence in the third world market.  This will be accomplished through ingenious projects like the one everyone sees as they enter Windom, Minnesota: the ‘Welcome to Windom’ city signs.  The city wanted to install and power three new signs.  The cost to run power to the city sign that was installed first was $8,000 a year.  Backup Power source installed the other two for less than $3,000 each, using one of their off grid solar panel systems.  This means that in addition to the fact that the upfront costs were less than half of the power bill for the other city sign, there are no on-going energy costs for these signs as they are using renewable energy!

Larry has been involved with YES! for several years.  In addition to having judged YES! projects and exhibited at YES! events, Larry has also employed a former YES! coordinator.  Minnesota appears to be gaining traction in clean energy.  Backup Power source hopes to contribute to the clean energy business sector by providing energy solutions as energy usage, prices, and interruptions increase.  With a growing population and an increasing demand for electricity, we need people willing to step up to the challenge of finding energy solutions and providing a quality of life that is many times taken for granted.

Over thirty students from New London-Spicer, Yellow Medicine East, Lac qui Parle and Litchfield attended the Milan YES! Winter Workshop and had the opportunity to see and experience the amazing things happening with passive solar greenhouses in this area of the state.  Teams were fortunate to benefit from many great thinkers during this workshop.

Students benefited from hearing Tim and Shelly Elkington describe how the planned, built, and sustain their passive solar greenhouse

The day started with an introduction to passive solar design with Chuck Waibel.  He was kind enough to share his knowledge and open the doors of his passive solar greenhouse to YES! teams looking to build and improve on greenhouses at their schools.  Teams then made their way to Tim and Shelly Elkington’s new passive solar greenhouse.  By seeing how Chuck’s greenhouse design was applied and adapted to the Elkington’s site, students were able to visualize how they too can put these concepts to work at their schools.

The last stop was at Moonstone Farm where Audrey Arner helped students take in the big picture of local foods projects.  Audrey, having helped Montevideo school practice holistic management at their little garden, is keen on the many systems that need to synchronize to make a functioning whole.  Upon returning to the Milan Community

Audrey Arner describing Moonstone Farm and their farming philosophy

Center, Bob Ryan talked with the teams about the work he is doing to promote local foods through education and creation of a distribution hub for this project using a grant he was awarded through the USDA.  Last but not least, Ann Thompson, board member of the Milan Sustainable Energy Utility, shared some tips and tricks for finding funding for projects.

Students learn how a solar panel is made while touring Solar Skies, LLC in Alexandria

How much waste in schools can be composted? YES! students recently learned that 30 percent of waste generated in schools is compostable.  Over 40 students and teachers from the YES! teams at Eden Valley-Watkins, New York Mills, Redwood Falls, ACGC and Brooten-Belgrade-Elrosa visited Alexandria on February 13th to learn new strategies for using renewable energy and going green in their schools and communities.

The day started with a tour of Solar Skies, LLC where students learned how a solar panel is made and peaked at the only laser welder for solar panels in the United States.  They learned that “using passive solar energy is very important to our community and can prevent future problems.”  Randy Hagen, owner of Solar Skies, surprised students by noting “Minnesota is similar to Texas in the amount of sunny days each year.”

Garbage can turn into valuable energy at PDSW

Next stop was Pope/Douglas Solid Waste (PDSW) where the students learned about hazardous waste, recycling practices and the benefits of reducing waste.  The PDSW employees encouraged students to vermicompost and invited students to visit the reuse it store where anyone can get free paints and stains.  Students gasped as they saw mounds of garbage moved with a giant claw to the incinerator to be burned. The waste-to-energy facility burns garbage to produce steam energy for Douglas County Hospital, 3M and Alexandria Technical & Community College.

The students were then able to see this steam energy in action as they headed over to Alexandria Technical & Community College.  Tim Tougas, Operations Manager, took teams through the school where he highlighted energy efficient areas of the school, including hydration stations.  A hydration station allows students to fill up reusable water bottles, saving thousands of plastic waters bottles from the landfill or recycling containers. Many teams are looking to install hydration stations in their school and appreciated the opportunity to see a hydration station in action at ATCC. Finally, Kristin Daby, instructor at ATCC impressed upon teams the impact they can have by doing projects that reduce, reuse and recycle in their school. The day concluded with teams having time to interact and learn from each other about energy projects they are working on.  Overall the students commented the day was “a very fun and educational experience.”

YES! students learn about the physics of energy through hands-on experiments

The students started off the day by checking out the energy-monitoring system that the Mankato West YES! team installed last year.  In order to better understand what this energy meter is measuring, they had to put their heads and hands to use with some fun, hands-on activities demonstrating the physics of energy.  Once they had a better understanding of what energy monitoring is all about, Eric Lennartson of Paulsen Architects led a discussion on what LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is and how to achieve energy efficiency through standards.  Lennartson taught the students about various buildings in the Mankato area that have received LEED certification, including the Blue Earth County Justice Center, the Riverside Regional Pet Shelter and Rosa Parks Elementary School.  He touched on several commonly known energy-efficiency elements of these buildings, such as solar panels, as well as a few products that are lesser-known, including dual-flush toilets.

YES! students check out the solar panels on the top of Olin Hall at Gustavus College

Next the students visited Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter to hear from Dr. Chuck Neiderriter and Dr. Jim Dontje as they discussed measuring energy usage and using alternative energy sources.  They first demonstrated some renewable energy technologies and explained the importance of energy efficiency and energy reduction.  They then took the students on a tour of several of the campus buildings to show off various energy-efficient equipment and designs.  This included a trip up to the roof of one of the building to check out their solar panels!

Greg Borchert of Paulsen Architects explains what goes on behind the scenes at Rosa Parks Elementary School.

The students then returned to Mankato to tour Rosa Parks Elementary School, a LEED Gold certified school.  While at Rosa Parks Elementary, they heard from Greg Milbrath, Director of Building and Grounds for the Mankato Schools and Greg Borchert of Paulsen Architects, Construction Administrator and Project Manager for the building of Rosa Parks Elementary.  The students learned all about what goes into the plans to build a school as well as some of the cool features that can make a school more energy-efficient, such as CO₂ sensors that can tell when a room is unoccupied and will turn off the lights.

The students learned a lot throughout the day and left feeling energized and excited to tackle energy-related projects in their schools and communities!

Read what the Mankato Free Press had to say about the day.