THE amazing work to reduce energy consumption at Okehampton College has attracted the attention of the MP for Central Devon.

Mel Stride visited the school to learn about the work of students and staff to accurately monitor the college's energy usage, and work out what can be saved.

The college recently won the European prize in the Global High School category of the Zayed Future Energy Prize, a prestigious international award rewarding innovation, impact, leadership and long-term vision in renewable energy and sustainability. The college also won 100,000 US dollars to continue its exceptional work.

The strides in energy efficiency have been led by students and the college's energy manager Keith Webber.

Mr Stride, who is a PPS within the Government's energy department, said: 'I am hugely impressed with the work that Mr Webber and many of his colleagues and students at Okehampton College have put into conserving energy. To have halved their energy usage in a short number of years is a significant success both in helping the environment and in keeping costs down.'

Mr Webber said: 'The building management system has helped us to understand our usage patterns and with the information gathered we have successfully reduced consumption by 50%. Such practices should be applied more widely across all schools thereby giving huge savings against their budgets. If you can't measure it, you can't manage it.'