A thermal imaging company and two science centres have joined forces to help pupils and teachers answer the question: “How green is your school?”

IRT Surveys, a Dundee-based company delivering cutting-edge infra-red thermographic building surveys, is carrying out full energy efficiency surveys of primaries in and around Aberdeen and Dundee.

Using a special infra-red camera, they produce a colour-coded image to help detect where heat is being needlessly lost. Through workshops delivered by staff at Sensation, the Dundee science centre, and Satrosphere Science Centre in Aberdeen, the findings are shared with pupils and teachers, demonstrating how eco-friendly or unfriendly their school is.

IRT Surveys can tell the quantity of energy lost, the financial cost and the amount of excess carbon dioxide released through this energy waste. Schools can investigate how to invest in more efficient insulation, thus reducing the need to use as much fuel and making the building more eco-efficient.

Each school receives a unique energy performance certificate, which will display its CO2 emissions and associated recommendations. In future, most schools will require an energy performance certificate.

The opportunity to combine this with a workshop from Dundee science centre will be available to all schools in Scotland once the pilot project finishes at the end of February.

www.sensation.org.uk; T: 01382 868609.