By Brady Bateman

Building toward sustainability

Nov 13, 2018 | 4:00 PM

Youths in Prince Albert are being encouraged to make their homes and lives more energy efficient thanks to Renewable Power, the Intelligent Choice (RPIC).

RPIC are hosting the Smarter Science, Better Buildings event at Prince Albert’s City Hall from Oct. 13 to Oct. 16, and are encouraging members of the community, specifically youths, to learn about measures that can be taken to improve eco-efficiency and sustainability.

RPIC member, Rick Closs, told paNOW in an interview that the event has been in planning for six months, and is meant to introduce students to energy use in homes, and how that use can be reduced through conservation.

“There’s a number of benefits to learning these measures,” Closs said. “There are a number of social benefits such as being in a more comfortable house, it also has an environmental impact by reducing electricity and water usage and I think in the long run it also has the benefit of making your house more sellable.”

A number of demonstrations and models were made available at the event, each of which had been designed to showcase a form of energy efficiency, ranging from the impact of solar panels to insulation techniques and reducing water usage.

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“These students are really our future,” said Jack Jensen, a member of RPIC in attendance of the event. “I think to have them understand that energy doesn’t just come from flipping a switch, and that there is a cost to energy … soon they will be able to make a change in the world.”

The Smarter Science, Better Buildings event was designed with students in mind, according to Jensen, and each of the students involved with the event will continue their learning with worksheets in their classrooms aimed at further increasing their understanding of energy efficiency.

Jensen added adults are more than welcome at the event as well, and encouraged everyone in Prince Albert and the surrounding areas to become involved in the discussion of sustainability, and to learn how to make their own homes more eco-friendly.

“Instead of just reading about the concepts of heat and temperature, here you actually have demonstrations of it, which I think is a lot better for most students to understand,” Jensen said. “This is enquiry learning, they are coming here with a packet of questions which guides them through the workstations and they will come out not only understanding the theory of heat and temperature. But we hope as citizens that will use energy in different ways than my generation.”