Life cycle energy assessment of Australian secondary schools

The Australian Department of Commerce builds many secondary schools in New South Wales every year, and the impact of energy consumption for such a type of construction has rarely been done before in Australia. Although there is a particular responsibility to ensure that public-owned projects contribute to the future well-being of the natural environment, environmental performance and energy efficiency of public projects are not well studied. In order that more informed design and planning decisions can be made about the future construction of school projects, this research paper uses life cycle energy analysis to study the total energy consumption of 20 public secondary school projects in New South Wales. The results will serve as a model for a more comprehensive analysis of energy consumption in establishing environmental performance criteria for the design and construction of future school projects in New South Wales.