Case Study: St. Lucie County School District achieves $7M in energy savings and major productivity gains with Brightly Software

Florida District Saves $7 Million in Energy Costs with Facilities Automation Tool

St. Lucie County School District, serving 40,000 students across 47 campuses in Fort Pierce, FL, faced a major operational challenge: manually transferring event schedules to its building automation system (BAS) for HVAC and lighting control. With 8 million square feet and roughly 2,000 community events a year, that error-prone, time-consuming process consumed about 40 hours per week and drove up energy and labor costs.

By integrating Dude Solutions Event Management and Facility Automation with the district’s BAS, event schedules now automatically control lighting and HVAC for each space. The district cut energy use by over 30%, saving $7 million over seven years (about $1 million annually), reclaimed 35 hours for higher-value work, reduced reliance on outside contractors, improved peak-demand management through smarter HVAC zoning, and shifted staff time from reactive data entry to proactive energy planning.

St. Lucie County School District

Jose Vega

Building Automation Technician