HLW Bad Ischl - the energy-saving school

Sustainability in all respects is a priority at the HLW Bad Ischl. "Our school stands for a well-founded general education and for competences in economics, natural sciences and languages. Sustainability in all aspects, several attractive vocational qualifications and the final school-leaving and diploma examinations are essential features of this training, explains headmaster Rainer Posch. He heads the large pedagogical team at the HLW Bad Ischl, which is also very committed to issues of "sustainability" and "environmental awareness". Since the 2019/20 school year, the school has offered the "sustainability management" specialisation, which is unique in Austria.

The Ecolabel team at the school with Sabine Reinbacher successfully led the school through the process of certification with the Austrian Ecolabel.

Physics - in the middle of life! Forms of energy, energy supply - but also the careful use of energy play a major role in the lessons at HLW Bad Ischl. Thus, appropriate, practical excursions are also carried out: On 8 April 2022, the pupils of HLS 4 visited the Energy Saving Fair in Wels with great interest and enthusiasm as part of their physics lessons. The topic had previously been dealt with in class by the two physics professors Josef Spitzer and Julian Penz, as energy-saving measures play a central role in the energy transition. Therefore, the visit to the energy-saving fair was an ideal addition to the lessons.

Try it out. Calculate. Compare. Thinking. But educational activities on the topic of energy in the sense of the Austrian Eco-label also took place at school: For example, the pupils recorded and documented the type of heating in their parents' household. Then they calculated the price of a kWh on the basis of their parents' electricity bills.

Then the pupils compared the purchase price of two electrical appliances including the electricity costs for ten years with the data from the energy label and the kWh price from the electricity bill they had. Furthermore, they cooked different meals with one of those solar cookers that are used in development aid projects. And then they started to think about it.

Very close to practice! All these interesting, practical projects let the pupils realise where and how energy is used everywhere. And how it has to be used carefully, i.e. sparingly. In other words, important impulses for the future of the young people at the Secondary School for Economic Professions with the school-autonomous specialisation in sustainability management in Bad Ischl! Because this is how they become sustainability managers!