Greener Schools

Schools have an important part to play in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions such as CO2 which contribute to climate change, and in teaching children from an early age about looking after their environment.

Do we know how schools are performing?

School buildings make up a large proportion of the Council’s overall carbon emissions, and there is a lot of potential to reduce these emissions, save schools money, and become more sustainable.

The Council has a responsibility under the governments CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme, to reduce its carbon emissions. The Council will be taxed per tonne of carbon it produces, so it is very important that all buildings’ emissions are reduced to save money as well as energy.

This chart from the Carbon Trust shows how a typical school uses energy. It is estimated that just by making small changes in behaviour, such as switching off lights and equipment when they’re not needed, schools could save up to 20 per cent of their energy use (and energy bills).

How to reduce your school’s carbon emissions

• Read your meters regularly - find out what you’re using now and check to see if you are making progress
• Go through checklists and guidance to find out how you can improve:
  • the Council's Low-Cost & No-Cost Energy Saving Measures checklist [PDF] (file size 56Kb)
  • the Carbon Trust guide to saving energy and money [PDF] (file size 87kb)
  • the Council's Green Kitchen advice

  • the Carbon Trust's Out of Hours checklist [PDF] (file size 30Kb) to work out what your essential overnight electricity consumption should be, and where you can reduce unnecessary consumption

• get the whole school thinking about climate change – download lesson plans from EDF Energy's programme for greener schools website: THE POD
• contact the Council’s Climate Change team for more advice and support on 020 7341 5223 or at environment@rbkc.gov.uk

Becoming a more sustainable school

It’s not just saving energy that is important when we think about looking after the environment. We also need to look at how we travel, use water, buy food and other products, and our waste. There are teams within the Council who can offer extra help with these, as well as national schemes that can help you work through the different areas:

• Recycling
• School travel
• Ecology service
• Eco-schools (external link)
• Sustainable schools alliance (external link)
• Carbon Trust (external link)

What are our schools doing to tackle Climate Change?

Fox Primary School

Fox Primary is always looking for ways to be more sustainable, and in the last few years has made some big changes, which has also had a huge impact on their energy bills.

The school has replaced the majority of its lighting with LED lights, which use much less energy than fluorescents, and has installed an impressive array of solar panels on its flat roof, which provide a large amount of electricity for the school as well as generating income for it.  To cut the cost of energy for IT, the school uses an automatic shutdown programme to make sure all the computers in the building are turned off at night.  And to reduce the need for electric fans in summer, they have applied solar window film to south facing windows, which has reduced the temperature in classrooms by up to 10 degress on hot days.

The drive to reduce carbon emissions doesn’t stop with electricity use, though. The school kitchen is now ‘meat free’ twice a week, and uses school-grown vegetables where possible, and as much locally produced fresh produce as it can.  Overgrown outside space has been converted into a peaceful garden area, where classes can learn about growing produce, and the schools own chickens keep it weed free and provide fresh eggs!

The whole school knows how important it is to look after the environment and reduce energy use.  The schools eco-club does regular checks to make sure that lights are turned off when not needed, and reports back to school assemblies on how classes are doing.