School takes its first carbon footstep into the future

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SYDNEY’S St Ignatius College Riverview is going further than planting trees and picking up rubbish in an effort to save the environment.

The school is the first Australian user of innovative software that uses smart metering to track, manage and report on energy use.

Developed by TR Control Solutions in Britain, the software, called ecoDriver, aims to educate young minds in energy consciousness.

It uses live data reflecting usage and respective costs of electricity, gas and water, displayed on LCD monitors in user-friendly line and bar graphs, to allow schools to track behavioural patterns and their effect on its carbon footprint.

A series of lesson plans has been developed to facilitate integration of data analysis into the curriculum.

Administrators are also informed on how energy and money can be saved.

St Ignatius College Riverview head master Shane Hogan said ecoDriver was adopted after a group of students saw the software in use at an eco-school during a visit to Britain last year.

“The kids are now seeing change on a day-to-day basis and an hour-to-hour basis and it is creating curiosity,” Mr Hogan said.

“In the evening, the power being generated at school still seems to be very high, so the kids are asking what sort of things haven’t been turned off when they are not at school.”

The data is made available to all staff and is expected to be extended next year through various curricula.

“I’m sure physics and maths, for example, will pick it up very quickly,” Mr Hogan said.

”If the students can see visually that if they do something and there is a change, they will be encouraged to do more in the future.”