Energy Efficiency in Schools

In New Zealand, there are high incentives for schools to reduce their energy consumption. Parents, teachers, and students increasingly
want their school to model sustainable practices. Energy efficient practices are part of this modelling and many schools are building it into their curriculum.

The new curriculum could make this easier to do with the inclusion of the theme of sustainability. Currently, heat, light, and water funding is individually assessed for each school and covered by the Ministry of Education to address their reasonable needs but government policy may change.

Monitoring energy use and developing action plans to improve schools’ energy efficiency will have real benefits for schools if they are able to fund teaching resources through energy efficiency.

Energy-efficient Schools: A guide for trustees, principals, teachers, students, caretakers, and energy managers

This guides aims to assist schools to:

• improve energy effi ciency
• move towards sustainability, and
• model good energy-effi ciency practice.

There are four main chapters plus a resource chapter. The chapters go through a simple action-learning process designed to assist people in schools learn about the school’s energy situation and then take action.

>> Download the Energy-efficient Schools Guide [PDF 650 KB]