City of Sydney monitoring water and electricity use

As part of its efforts to reduce energy and water savings across its buildings, the City of Sydney has installed a real-time environmental tracking system.

Operating 24 hours a day, the system monitors 95% of water and electricity use across the City’s childcare centres, libraries, community centres, pools and facilities, so problems such as leaking taps and lights left on can be quickly solved.

“This state-of-the-art system sends an alert when areas of waste are detected across the City’s 240 buildings and allows us to investigate areas of energy wastage in real time,” said Lord Mayor Clove Moore.

“Small changes such as fixing a leaking tap or unplugging unused electrical appliances can make a real difference and result in big energy savings.”

The Lord Mayor said as a green leader, the City has a responsibility to ensure its buildings run at maximum levels of efficiency.

“By improving the efficiency of our buildings, we are not only reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but significantly reducing costs. We want to set a good example and encourage other building and home owners across the city to do the same.”

The City has the ambitious target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 70% by 2030. The environmental tracking system is one of several measures to improve energy efficiency and address climate change.

“We are getting our own house in order by retrofitting our buildings for water and energy savings, rolling out LED lighting, installing solar cells, reducing water usage and reducing fleet emissions,” the Lord Mayor said.

“And we are working with the big end of town through the Better Buildings Partnership, with more than 51% of office floor space in the city centre now committed to energy savings.

“The City of Sydney is an environmental role model, demonstrating how communities can address climate challenge and thrive and prosper while doing so.”