TRANSPORT company Stagecoach North-East has installed a series of energy monitoring systems and created a dedicated eco team to drive its recently-launched green programme forward.

Following the launch of its £350,000 strategy late last year, which could become a model for the national Stagecoach group, the bus company has now installed a NoWatt 1,000+ channel electricity tracker at each of its six depots across the region.

The tracker sends sub-second readings via the internet, reporting the usage of individual appliances over any period of time, in any location within the depot.

Each depot has two newlyappointed eco champions – one individual from the driving team and one from the engineering department.

There are also two champions from Stagecoach’s head office in Sunderland, taking the team total to 14. The eco champions will be responsible for leading each depot towards becoming more energy efficient, monitoring energy reduction results, and acting as communication figures between employees and programme directors.

Mark Hillyard of NoWatt, who trained the eco champions, said: “With our tracker you see electricity consumption in real-time and which appliances are being used or simply on standby.

“You can also look at any period in the past and compare one period against another to ensure a consistency of consumption. Furthermore the eco champions will be able to set ‘alerts’ via SMS or email to indicate when appliances aren’t being used when, or as you want.”