Approximately 27,000 students and their families in Greater Sudbury will be asked to take part in the Interactive Home Audit (IHA) over the next few weeks – an innovative and comprehensive education program that will provide a framework for changing habits when it comes to energy conservation.

The Interactive Home Audit involves the City of City of Greater Sudbury’s four school boards and includes all 94 schools. Coordinated by the City of Greater Sudbury and the Dearness Environmental Society, the program features an online tool designed to encourage students, their families, and the general public to reduce electricity, energy and water use in their homes.

Rossella Bagnato, Interim Director of Education for the Sudbury Catholic District School Board was on hand for the official launch of the Interactive Home Audit program at Science North. Mrs. Bagnato is proud of the role that her students are playing in the Home Audit Program. “By educating and assisting our families about conservation in our homes and businesses we are taking a positive step to sustainable change,” stated Bagnato. “We are very committed to this community wide strategy and take our role as stewards of the earth seriously.”

The information users will find when completing the Interactive Home Audit includes:

• The amount of energy being consumed in their homes
• How much money energy use is costing per month
• What efficiency measures can be implemented to reduce consumption
• Dollar savings after efficiency measures are implemented
• The impact that personal actions have on the environment

As a component of the Interactive Home Audit Challenge, a number of youth environmental teams, representing each of the four school boards, will be visiting neighbourhoods in Greater Sudbury during the month of March, to promote the IHA and Efficient Sudbury campaign. The youth teams will be sharing information on these two community initiatives and giving residents a free Energy Star compact fluorescent light bulb.

Tom Tamblyn, President of Dearness Environmental Society, developed the Interactive Home Audit to connect student learning about the environment with actions in our homes and community. As Tom stated recently, “we all have a responsibility to think globally and act locally. The home audit was designed to help students become ‘system thinkers’, so they can better understand sustainability principles and the impacts of their actions on their community and their environment.”

The IHA can be found online at http://sudbury.yourhomeaudit.com.