Bright FutureSustainable Living Inc.

Enpowering Sustainable Schools Education Kit

BrightFuture.net.au | +61 1300 955 195 | info@isolar.com.au

c.

info@brigh uture.net.au brigh uture.net.au

1300 955187 ABN 92 971 155 004

1300 955 187 | www.BrightFuture.net.au | info@brigh uture.net.au

Bright FutureSustainable Living Inc.

Developing attitudes for the future. A comprehensive sustainability education program for Levels 1–4 incorporating English literacy, mathematics, science, social science and ICT.

Your gateway to sustainability education.

Multimedia. Multimedia resources and supplementary materials for teachers and students.

Connecting

sustainable schools.

Safely build purposeful community relationships Australia wide and globally.

Education

BrightBuddy

P RTAL

Empowering Smart Sustainable Schools Hi, my name is Tomas Molloy. I know often in life some things seem too good to be true, but I am here to show you how there has never been a better time for you and your school to get serious aboutsaving energy and the environment. Five years ago I left my corporate job in a multinationalorganisation determined to make a difference to our impact on the environment. iSolar was borne.

After installing hundreds of solar panels on roofs around Australia, many schools and their teacherswould come and ask me to talk to their students about solar power and what it can mean for theenvironment. Inevitably the conversations went on to talk about sustainability and how iSolar was only one part of the solution. Soon, I was spending more time speaking and teaching than installing solarpanels. I quickly decided to work with some teachers and create sustainability resources that teachers could use as part of their lesson plans. Bright Future Sustainable Living was born. Bright FutureSustainable Living was the missing link that connects the physical solar panels on the roof with anonline learning community of schools, comparing and sharing their experiences around environmentalsustainability, all the while with the support of teachers.

Recently I, undertook some research of our schools, that have over 6000 members using oureducation program, and asked them what they considered to be the most important issues affectingthe environment. "Energy" was the number ticket item and many of the concerns related to how we consume energyand how we source energy. “I think energy is the number one problem facing the world as we moveforward in a global economy hungry to consume. We have population growth compounding year afteryear and developing countries increasing their demand for energy at rate and scale that has neverbeen seen.” Malcolm Dow, Sustainability Coordinator, Armadale Primary

After hearing this feedback I jumped into action to find the things we can do at home and in our school community to reduce energy and ultimately our carbon footprint. I found out that energy managementis the key to saving energy in schools so after some thought and discussion we have compiled our top10 ways to sustainable energy management.

Top 10 Ways to Sustainable Energy Management Set a Target. Setting a percentage energy saving target will allow your school to measure yoursuccess against stated goals. This can be done with Bright Future and monitored by a ‘student actionteam’.

Empower students. Encouraging students to manage and monitor the energy waste in their school is potentially the most significant action that can be implemented. This one exercise can reduce energyconsumption and emissions generation by as much as 25% when properly implemented. Teachinggood switch off habits to the next generation is vital in changing our culture from one that wastesenergy to one that values and conserves it.

Change School policy-- equipment purchases. Encourage your school to make it a policy topurchase the highest energy rated appliances for all your equipment and lighting. This is cheaper andmore environmentally friendly in the long run. Initial equipment costs are always a consideration butour experience has shown that appliances that are cheaper to buy and have lower energy starsgenerally consume far more energy over their life cycle and as a consequence cost more to run andproduce more emissions. When life cycle costs are added to the purchase cost, poorly ratedequipment makes little economic sense and delivers poor environmental outcomes.

Switch off equipments at the wall or Power Save. Nearly all modern appliances andequipment carry standby or phantom loads. Photocopiers carry as much as 100 watts even whenswitched off. Computers, printers, chargers, coffee machines fax machines, projectors, speakers, TVs,CD players, PA systems and others carry between 2 and 20 watts 24 hours a day 365 days a year.One photocopier produces 1.2 tonnes of emissions and costs approximately $115 per year to runwhen left on at the wall - this is without producing a single photocopy. Roughly 30% of the total dailyenergy consumption occurs when there is no one occupying your school. Computers, printers, andphotocopiers have power save and/or hibernation modes that can be programmed to shut down theappliance after use. Ask your service technician or read the instructions to enable these energy savingfeatures in your equipment. Encourage your IT staff to activate energy savings features in all schoolcomputers (including laptops). IT equipment, including computers, consumes a large amount of yourschool’s electricity – they can use as much as 35% of the total energy.

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info@brigh uture.net.au brigh uture.net.au

1300 955187 ABN 92 971 155 004

1300 955 187 | www.BrightFuture.net.au | info@brigh uture.net.au

Bright FutureSustainable Living Inc.

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Do away with Screen Savers. Screen Savers do not save energy and are no longer necessary inmodern computer screens. They actually waste energy. They were designed to prevent imprinting orburning of text and images in the phosphors of early monitor types and can consume as much or more energy than if you were operating the computer.

Signage. Good and relevant signage with messages that show a benefit for action and aconsequence of inaction will have more impact than static messages such as ‘switch it off please’. Oneexample: ‘Switching off lights in our school will save 16 tonnes of emissions per year which is equal to 4 cars off the road.’ Be creative with signage. Run a student competition to design clever andinteresting signage that has relevance and lasting impact

Use timers & sensors. Timers are a clever and convenient way to eliminate energy waste. We allforget to switch off from time to time. A timer will not forget! Place timers (24hr, or better, programmable ones that can also turn off at all weekend and holiday periods too) on all items thathave phantom or standby loads. Timers can be of the plug in variety, radio controlled or hard wired by an electrician. They can be used on all types of equipment including gas heaters, photocopiers, hotwater systems (including over-sink types), lighting and computers. One timer on the staffroom hot water boiler will save nearly half a tonne of emissions and save $40 dollars per year. Movementsensors eg for internal lights, air conditioning, or day light sensors eg for external security lights etc canreally make a difference particularly in less used areas like store rooms outdoor areas and toilets.

Turn off the fluoros. There is a myth that it is better to leave fluorescent lighting on rather than switch if off when exiting a room. This was true of the original fluorescents yet this myth has persisted to this day. We have calculated that if you are leaving the room for longer than two minutes there is a cost benefit both for the life of the lamp and the cost of running it, in switching it off. It is a goodexercise in behaviour change for you and your students too!

Programme the temperature and leave it alone! Setting an extremely high or low temperature on the thermostat control does not heat or cool a room any quicker. Educate staff on this myth. Gas heaters and split systems heat and cool a room at fixed rates. The accepted comfort temperature isbetween 18 and 21 degrees. Set maximum cooling temperature to 24 degrees and max heatingtemperature to 19 or 20 and implement a ‘Do Not Touch’ policy. If staff continue to alter temperaturesettings the temperature range can be set internally by a qualified electrician or by the manufacturer.Every one-degree thermostat change equates to a 10% increase or decrease in cost and in turnemissions.

Celebrate Your Success within you School community. Dedicate a section of your School newsletter or web page to your energy management strategy. Show the whole school community the enormous gains that can be achieved. Schools are centres for change within our communities and as such, have a fantastic opportunity to lead local actions to reduce the future effects from Climate Change.

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