This article is from page 35 of the 2008-05-06 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 35 JPG
CREATING energy awareness has earned a school in Sixmilebridge major honours – its second ever PARI E ENE
St Finnachta’s National School won the flag, after it put in a major effort in relation to energy saving.
The previous green flag was achieved in 2006, after the school focused on targeting litter and waste. For the second flag, their task was to focus on energy while not forgetting to take care of litter and waste.
A committee of staff and students at the school, along with local tidy towns committee member Rita Higgins, put together a plan for the
project.
“We began by carrying out a sur- vey on heating and electricity in the homes. There were two different surveys and the results were very in- teresting. We found that most homes use oil for home heating, followed by solid fuel and then gas,” said teacher, Frances Downes.
“The most used electrical appli- ances in homes were chargers of all descriptions,” she said.
Under the initiative, the school as- sessed its oil and electricity usage over previous years and then put measures in place to save energy.
“We checked our expenditure one year later to see if things had 1m- proved. We did very well on oil. We
had halved the oil bill in the school. We had turned down the heating by one degree. Even though the school got bigger, we reduced the amount of electricity used. This was partly due to things like closing the doors and turning off lights when we weren’t using them,” she said.
She paid tribute to the students at the school, who showed a great inter- est in their environment.
“There were energy wardens in every class, to keep an eye on things,” said Ms Downes.
While everyone enjoyed being in- volved, it also took a huge effort on the administrative side of things. An application, submitted to An Taisce, included details on all the work car-
ried out at the school. This contained graphs and descriptions of the work involved.
A representative from An Taisce visited the school and spoke of the importance of keeping the environ- ment clean. The good news that the green flag was to be presented to the school was relayed in January, but it was not unveiled until last week.
Hopes are high that the school can now make it three-1n-a-row and earn its next flag in 2010.
“We will be going for it again in two years’ time, when the theme will be water,” said Ms Downes.
Every effort will be made to ensure that the impeccable standards are again met, with the next project.