On Wednesday, Douglas County commissioners directed staff to seek requests for proposals for an energy audit so the county can maintain the success of its sustainability program.

Commissioners gave Eileen Horn, coordinator of the Douglas County Sustainability Office, that direction after she shared an annual report on the Sustainability and Energy Savings Reinvestment Fund at Wednesday’s meeting. The revolving loan program was started with $300,000 in seed money in 2011. Money saved from the projects is plowed back into the loan fund to be used for additional improvement.

Horn reported the county has completed 21 projects through the program since it started and reduced energy consumption in the county’s seven buildings by 20 percent. She calculated the upgrades saved the county $163,000 in 2015 alone. Four of the county’s buildings — the Douglas County Courthouse, Law Enforcement Center, United Way Building and Douglas County Extension office — have achieved the 30 percent energy-saving goal, which was the program’s ambitious benchmark when it was started

Many of those completed improvements were identified in a 2008 energy audit of county buildings. Because most of those projects have been addressed, Horn suggested it was time the county consider contracting another energy audit to identify future projects.

Horn did not know what an audit would cost, but said it should be considerably cheaper than the $76,000 energy audit the city of Lawrence contracted for its 70 buildings. Commissioners gave Horn the green light to seek requests for proposals to get a sense of the cost of an audit.

The potential for savings would be in the Douglas County Jail and Youth Services, where it is more difficult to cut energy use because they are occupied 24 hours a day, Horn said.