Albion Park High School is a comprehensive co-educational high school with a strong reputation for outstanding academic, sporting and cultural achievements. The school encourages RESPECT, RESPONSIBILITY & COMMITMENT and this has resulted in agriculture students seeking highly sustainable and environmental practices.
The school installed the SmartMeter Utility Management Solution (SUMS) in April 2014. Immediately the environmental group (consisting of 16 students) and lead by Science/Agriculture Teacher, Mr Medhi Hassanpour, were alerted to high water use. The SUMS platform detected excess usage and unnecessary overnight water use. The environmental group, together with Farm Assistant Peter Bowditch, were tasked with investigating this problem and conducting a complete water audit. The students’ report illustrated a long list of infrastructure problems including; faulty taps, bubblers, leaking fittings and one leak in an unused toilet responsible for water loss of over 500 litres per day. Principal Ms Suzi Clapham was not only very impressed with the reduction in water for the school but also the problem solving skills being formed by the students.
Illustrating Daily Water Usage at Albion Park High School
The environmental group’s findings resulted in quick rectification work and today Albion Park High School has reduced water usage by up to 2,500 litres per day. Medhi Hassanpour says “This is important for a number of reasons because the cost of this water is better used in education, because we have succeeded in saving significant amounts of water, and because our students are proactively working to find more sustainable solutions for improved environmental outcomes.”
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