St Luke’s Grammar School is an independent school situated on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. The School has approximately 900 students from Pre-Kindergarten to Year 12 and approximately 120 staff members. An aim of the School is to educate, develop and inspire students to make a difference in the world.
St Luke’s is committed to sustainability and has illustrated this by reducing overall water usage on site despite large building projects that have increased infrastructure over the last 4-5 years.
Objectives of installing SUMS
The SmartMeter Utility Management Solution™ (SUMS) was installed at St Luke’s Grammar School in February 2013. The objectives were to:
- Achieve a pro-active approach to water management (setting an environmental example for students)
- Increase building efficiencies
- Improve water efficiency
- Reduce Costs
- Recently, the School elected to commence electricity monitoring with the SUMS platform in order to gain similar efficiency and cost benefits with their energy usage.
Results Achieved to Date
An analysis of water usage since the installation of SUMS platform shows a marked decrease in water usage from approximately 15 litres per student per day in 2013 to approximately 11 litres per student per day by the end of June 2015.
With a reduction in water usage of 4 litres per student per day and 910 students at the School, the daily water savings amount to 3.64kL translating to an annual cost saving of $4,800
In summary the SUMS platform has resulted in savings of:
- 4 litres per student per day (a 26% drop in water usage)
- 1,328,600kL per annum
- $4,800 per annum
How SUMS is utilised at St Luke’s Grammar School
Today, the School’s Business Manager and the Senior Groundsman (Building Manager) view the SUMS data regularly – primarily through the monthly report. The reports provide valuable information comparing water usage figures month on month and this year’s figures to last year. The report also highlights the number of excess water usage incidents that have occurred in the previous month. This helps the maintenance team to prioritise tasks to maximise water and cost savings. SUMS provides automated alerts via SMS/Email to the school’s Business Manager and the Senior Groundsman enabling them to react quickly to high water usage.
An Example
The following example occurred over the Christmas break in December 2013 resulting in excess water usage valued at $736.
This leak occurred on 23rd December translating to out-of-hours consumption of 32.14 litres per student per day. SUMS alerted the maintenance team to the problem which was consequently resolved very quickly. Without the SUMS alert this leak may have continued unabated for the remainder of the school holiday resulting in excess water use estimated at $3,900.
In this instance alone SUMS resulted in cost savings of $3,164.
Environmental Education
Today, SUMS is used in Environmental Resource Management to ensure students can use live data in daily learning. The School’s Senior Groundsman regularly provides an overview of the school’s water management activities in the classroom (in Environmental Studies for Years 6, 8 and 10). In future the school intends to expand the use of the online SUMS portal in the classroom.
So… is St Luke’s equipping students to make a difference in the world? It looks like they are – one drop at a time!
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