Campus Energy-Saving Promotion Achievements Press Conference

April 22, 2009

The Ministry of Education specially chose Apr. 22, Earth Day, to hold the "Campus Energy-Saving Promotion Achievements Press Conference" to share with every one the results of the Ministry's efforts over the past year in fighting climate change and global warming. The press conference was held outdoors as a token of the Ministry's practical actions in response to the worldwide appeal for energy saving.

The Ministry of Education has spared no effort in promoting energy saving in schools at every level. To help save electricity, the Ministry has completed the Electricity Use Checkup Manual for a total number of 254 schools, including 163 universities and colleges as well as 91 senior and vocational high schools. The manual will be extremely helpful in the formulation of future electricity-saving measures at each school.

When applying simple electricity saving measures, such as using energy-saving lamps for example, it is estimated that 7,457,180kw/hr per year, the equivalent of 4,750kg/yr of carbon emissions as well as NT$18,642, can be saved in the schools mentioned above. The achievements of five top energy-and-electricity-saving institutions, namely Vanung University, National Taipei University of Technology, Ling Tung University, National Chin-Yi University of Technology and Dayeh University, were displayed at the conference.

Last year the Ministry of Education introduced the ISO 14064 Standard for greenhouse gas emissions in campuses and completed campus greenhouse gas inventory in 30 national senior high schools to establish the criteria for the evaluation of the sources of greenhouse gas emissions in schools, as well as the total amount of emissions. It was also the preliminary operation for the planning and establishment of carbon emission reduction measures in schools.

The Ministry of Education also assisted National Hai-san Industrial Vocational High School, National Yilan Senior High School, National Taitung Junior College, National Tainan First Senior High School and National Tainan Industrial High School to establish their external verification procedures, apply to the international external verification organization SGS, and successfully acquire the ISO 14064-1 verification statement. This was a first in the country.

During the inventory process, the assistance team discovered the chief sources of electricity waste on campus were air conditioning, accounting for 40.7%, and lighting, 28.5%. By applying the "maximizing the effects of electricity use," "replacing old equipment," and "enforcing effective electricity use management" measures, the Ministry was able to help the schools build energy-saving campuses.

At the press conference, details of the past year's campus energy-saving promotion achievements were available for schools that are interested in implementing energy saving measures and joining forces to build green campuses.