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Education IT, Local Government
Queensland schools eye 30 per cent energy savings
Queensland’s Department of Education and Training aims to reduce the energy consumption of its state schools by 30 per cent by 2012. Cam Mackenzie, Principal Advisor for Environmental Sustainability, Queensland Department of Education and Training, told FutureGov how the department plans to achieve this and detailed the challenges it must overcome.
2010 has been hailed ‘The Year of Environmental Sustainability’ by the Education department. For Mackenzie, whose team is tasked to head the sustainability movement for over 1300 state primary and secondary schools, it will be an exciting 12 months of expanding and strengthening state-wide green initiatives.
The solar and energy efficiency programme, which started this July 2008, is one such initiative that will continue to run next year. Investing A$60 million (US$53.2 million) over three years, the programme has rolled out energy reduction measures, such as the installation of solar panels, retrofitting of low-energy lighting and the measurement of energy consumption.
“2 kilowatt (KW) solar panels will be installed to generate ‘green’ electricity and energy efficient lights will replace inefficient lights to reduce the schools carbon footprint,” said Mackenzie. “A software application will allow schools to monitor and analyse the energy generated from the solar system.” The data collected will be published almost real-time on a web site (www.solarschools.net), allowing the public to see ‘Green Power’ generated and the schools to see their ‘Black Power’ consumed. The system even allows a user to compare electricity generation among schools within Australia, and some schools in New Zealand.
Curriculum has been developed to engage students to initiate and execute school-wide energy efficiency projects. For example, students in Year 7 (12 year-old) participate in a learning module where they have to conduct an energy audit, develop an energy reduction plan, put it into action and track the outcomes. The Education department has started receiving reports from these projects. Within nine months, schools reported a decrease in energy consumption of ten to 30 per cent. “It is exciting to see that this reduction was predominantly a result of behavioural change. Simply turning equipment off or not turning them on can make a huge difference,” he observed.
As Queensland builds new campuses or expands existing ones, energy efficiency has become an important criteria. Energy-saving features such as insulation in walls and roofs, or ventilation to avoid the need for air conditioning must be included. The department even has a policy that only classrooms above a certain latitude can be air conditioned. In the next school year, two new schools which are certified level four (out of six) in the ‘Green Star’ programme, a national environmental rating system, will be opened. Considering that only 11 per cent of the country’s office buildings are Green Star certified, it is some achievement for these schools.
Each of the 1300 state schools is at a different stage in their green journey – ranging from schools which have not started at all, to schools which are close to achieving their ideal position. By establishing a common understanding around what sustainability means – ‘Enough for all forever’ – the Education department hopes to get all 490,000 students, 35,000 teachers, non-teaching staff, parents and the rest of the community on board.
“We need to get the thinking right. Sustainability started as a fringe issue, became mainstream, and now it has become embedded in our organisation’s strategic vision. There is still a lot to do. It is our aim to make it part of the department’s culture,” concluded Mackenzie.
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