This summer’s record-breaking temperatures have brought about an increased awareness of climate change – and in a recent research poll carried out by John Lewis, three-quarters of Britons now want to see the government take more action.

“A poll of 2,000 adults found 77 per cent believed the new government should do even more than their predecessors to protect the UK from global warming.”

Many of those asked also recognised their own accountability, as the poll reveals that 32 per cent reflected on how their own personal actions have been damaging to the environment. This is perhaps good news if this feeling can be directed into behaviour change that is positive for the environment, and this is where Schools are uniquely well placed to make a real difference through direct action with their staff and pupils and through outreach into the wider communities.

So if you are a school looking to make a difference and demonstrate climate change leadership for your local community, then one key area that you can focus on, that will not only make a direct impact on your own school emissions but will also send positive messages and hopefully knowledge and skills back into the local community, is food.

Why do I think this? Firstly catering and food choices are daily activities made by all members of the school and wider community. Therefore everyone can be empowered to make a difference; secondly, food production is one of the biggest carbon emitters globally, accounting for around 37% of all greenhouse gases. To put this in context, air travel accounts for around 2%, so you can see that changing a school and the wider community’s food and catering habits has the potential to make a significant difference. Changes can also be implemented quickly, and the skills, knowledge and understanding gained from making these changes (if properly explained and understood) are easily transferred to life outside of school at home and in the wider community.

Globally Food Production is one of the biggest carbon challenges, but the good news is there is a lot we can do. If we break down the global figure of 37% of greenhouse emissions from food production, 57% of these come from animal-based food production and only 29% from plant-based production. So one quick win is to simply reduce the amount of meat in our diets or on the menu.

To be clear, nobody needs to stop eating meat or high-carbon food types necessarily; we just need to reduce the amount we eat overall by making better food choices. There tends to also be a correlation between the carbon intensity of a food type and its £ cost, with lower-carbon food types often being cheaper, and so with the current cost of living crisis, low-carbon food choices can provide a win-win. With this in mind and to help inform decision-making, then it’s clearly worth understanding that different animal and plant food production types have very different carbon footprints, as the following chart shows.

So being aware of the carbon footprint of even just a handful of different foodstuffs can help us all make informed and positive food/meal choices. If nothing else, then simply understanding that beef production is the biggest single contributor to carbon emissions. Knowing that it’s significantly worse than any other food production will hopefully help change behaviours.

Applying this knowledge and information at an organisational level, particularly in a school catering service, also needs to be considered. So what are the biggest sources of emissions in school catering, and where do people need to put their energies to reduce them?

Typically, the school catering chain is made up of food production, processing and logistics and then, once it lands on site, kitchen production, waste handling and disposal. What we have learnt is that the biggest sources of emission are:

• Around 60% to 70% of total emissions are due to activities in agricultural production and food processing.
• 5% to 10% are due to transportation
• 10% to 20% of emissions are from canteen activities (cooking, storage, washing)
• Depending on how disposal is done, a negative impact of -4 to -16% emissions

Food waste accounts for 8% to 10% of greenhouse gases globally, so again a focus on reducing waste will have a big impact and in a school setting if food waste can be diverted away from landfill and be processed in a bio-digester then this can have a negative carbon impact of -4 to -16% emissions

However, the vast majority of emissions come from the type of food and recipes used across the catering service. Based on research, the average kilo of food that caterers buy is made up of:

• 42% fruit and veg
• 33% groceries (rice, pasta, bread, oils)
• 12% dairy products
• 7% other meat
• 3% red meat
• 3% fish

Based on this, the average food kilo generates 2.5 kilos of carbon emissions (twice the weight of the kilo of food). There are major variations in this depending on the types of food bought, ranging from 1.5 kilos of carbon for schools using greater proportions of fruit and veg and poultry to nearly 4 kilos for schools buying lots of red meat.

Any change you make will have a large cumulative impact on your carbon footprint.

For example, if a catering service serving 25,000 meals using anaerobic waste disposal (low carbon impact) served the average menu, generating 2.5 kilos of carbon per kilo of food, their total emissions would be 1,170 tonnes.

If the same service, under the same conditions, procured the lower impact menu, generating 1.5 kilos of carbon per kilo of food, their total emissions would equate to 740 tonnes of carbon.

So simple changes to your school’s menus and catering service combined with a campaign to help inform better meal choices by staff and pupils, could not only deliver significant carbon savings for your school and communities but could also offset some of the rising prices that all catering staff are currently struggling with.

If you would like to learn more about reducing your school’s carbon emissions, please contact our experienced team for advice and support on the best way to source suppliers that support your school’s sustainability plans.

We recently started to look at ways in which we can reduce the energy usage of ICT Provision in school and discussed the varying methods of shutting down equipment to make sure it is only consuming energy when it is needed. We also looked at the possibility of moving to a cloud-based solution to reduce energy. But can moving to a cloud-based solution really save energy?

The answer is that it can, but it needs some careful thought and consideration before committing to this route. The energy savings from servers alone will not be extensive, particularly more modern servers that have become far more efficient by design. In many ways, it can be more effective to upgrade an old server estate to a modern new one where virtualisation alone will reduce energy consumption compared to individual physical servers.

However, moving to the cloud opens a range of options that can lead to some quite significant energy savings. Firstly, it can enable the wider use of cloud devices which can operate far more efficiently compared to traditional devices and have the added advantage that they are usually cheaper and can be used remotely very easily as well. Secondly, it can offer an opportunity to consider the range and type of peripherals in use, and how they are integrated into an overall ICT Provision. Similarly, it can have an impact on printing, and on other devices around the network such as cashless catering, and indeed on the mix of fixed versus mobile devices, and the type of whole class teaching solution in place.

The most important step is to start with a clear set of principles which drive the usage of ICT in schools and work out how best to drive that usage and what the ICT provision needs to do to fulfil that usage. This should be considered and planned into an ICT Strategy, which is an opportunity to present an outcomes-based approach to what ICT should do, and then commit to providing the most energy efficient method of delivering those outcomes. For most schools, that will require a move to a cloud-based solution to ensure that delivery is achieved in the most energy efficient way.

Alongside this approach it is also important to ensure that all possible solutions are considered and ensure that refreshing/updating equipment doesn’t mean that energy efficiency isn’t considered fully. It is easy to fall into the trap of refreshing equipment with newer devices that can save some energy but failing to consider an alternate solution that could have saved a lot more energy. This is particularly true when considering a move to cloud-based solutions and the relative pros and cons versus any perceived energy efficiencies.

It is also important to consider the ancillary systems that are vital to a school such as MIS, Finance, Payroll, and other administrative systems, which can be migrated to cloud-based systems relatively easily and can provide significant energy savings.

If you would like to learn more about reducing your ICT energy costs and usage by implementing cloud-based solutions, please contact our experienced team for advice and support on the best way to get a greener, more cost-efficient energy-saving ICT strategy for your school.

IT equipment has developed a peculiar habit in a lot of people – we tend to want to keep it on and not turn it off. For many of us who are a little older, this comes from the days of mechanical hard drives and other moving parts, where there was a genuine concern that turning a device off and then on again could cause it to fail or reboot. But the IT Crowd were right though, the most effective way to save energy with existing equipment is to turn it off and then on again, particularly as most devices don’t have those mechanical moving components anymore.

For most schools, ICT assets are more convenient if left on as there isn’t a reboot period, or a risk of the device not being available at the start of a lesson when switched on again. However, approximately 35% of energy consumed by devices in schools happens when there are no pupils on-site at all. This out-of-hours usage can be managed and prevented by a careful regime of human intervention, software configuration, and additional monitors and switches.

It is worth looking at all your ICT provision and working out which pieces of equipment are more likely to be left on, and then making sure that there is sufficient signage and instruction to turn them off when not needed, and help users understand that turning them off won’t be detrimental. This is particularly the case with Audio Visual equipment such as screens or projectors, and desktop machines in ICT Suites. Remember also that standby mode still consumes power, and some devices only drop their consumption a relatively small amount during standby as they may be performing upgrades, monitoring for activity, or other things that keep the power consumption up.

It is also worthwhile taking time to determine those items of ICT provision can be configured to automatically shut down after a period of inactivity, or after a certain set time during the day. Increasingly equipment is becoming capable of interfacing with monitors and other devices that can intelligently determine if a room or area of the school is no longer occupied and instruct devices to shut down. This is increasingly the case with infrastructure where manufacturers are introducing ways to intelligently control the network and ensure that it is only keeping those areas switched on that need to be, and this is particularly important where more and more devices become powered over the network using Power over Ethernet (PoE).

More radically, it is also worth considering a design philosophy which encourages energy saving. For instance, moving to a cloud-based solution can mean the removal of servers and storage from site, and this can lead to fewer items requiring power out of hours as users do not need to access local assets remotely but access the same information in the cloud. Lowering energy can be relatively simple and effective, and it can also form a key principle for a sustainable strategy.

If you would like to learn more about reducing your ICT energy usage and costs, please contact our experienced team for advice and support on the best way to get a greener, more cost-efficient energy-saving ICT strategy for your school.

As the summer holidays draw to an end and the focus now starts to shift towards a new academic year, then it is already clear that one of the big challenges for all schools this year will simply be making ends meet. Schools are not sheltered from the inflationary pressures that are impacting every other walk of life, and the unprecedented energy price increases are a cause for serious concern. So what can be done to minimise a School’s energy bills?

Well, different schools will face different challenges, and some will have a greater scope for making savings than others. However, it’s often reported that most organisations can cut energy spend by at least 10% by taking some simple efficiency measures, and often by 20%, by simple actions that produce quick returns on investment. So the good news is that it’s more than likely that there will be many simple and straightforward ways that you can save money and become more sustainable in your School. Some of these will be through changing behaviours and culture, but equally importantly can be through more active management of buildings, plant and equipment along with strategic planning.

Here is a checklist of the top 6 quick and easy energy saving wins:

1. Behaviour Change – Saving energy = Saving the Planet = Saving Money, and in my experience, staff and pupils, once aware of the energy they are using and what it is costing in both monetary and environmental terms, are more than happy to make the necessary behaviour changes. However, empowering them to take ownership of the changes is even more impactful, and there are a number of off-the-shelf and easy ways to encourage this.

• Perhaps the most widely known and easiest route is to sign your school up to the Eco Schools programme (enrolment happens in September) and, with their help, establish an eco-council comprised of Staff, Student & Governor representatives and ensure they select Energy as one of the three Focus areas to work on across this academic year.
• If you are a secondary school that runs the Duke of Edinburgh Scheme, then you may look to encourage a number of students to become Energy Envoys. The Energy Envoys scheme is a volunteering opportunity provided by the National Energy Foundation for young people looking to complete the Volunteering section of their Bronze, Silver or Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. The objective is for your Energy Envoys to carry out audits, identify energy savings projects and run campaigns to help your school and community, use energy more wisely, save money and help to save the planet (www.energyenvoys.org.uk )

@energyenvoys.org.uk

• Or you could simply set up your own Energy Team, including teachers, caretakers, Governors and pupils, who will become the flag- bearers for the energy-saving policies in the school.
  • Start with the basics, such as switching off lights and electrical equipment when not in use.

@jointhepod.org

• • Remove obstructions from windows and radiators to make the best use of daylight and make sure heating systems are operating efficiently.
  • Encourage pupils and staff to keep doors closed wherever possible to stop warm or cool air from escaping.
  • Adjust temperature controls to cool rooms if the heating is on before opening windows.
  • Many schools have groups of ‘eco-champions’ or ‘power rangers’ who check at the end of each day for equipment or lights that have been left on, switch them off and inform the staff responsible.
  • The DFE also has helpful guidance advice for estates teams to consider and implement. click here

2. Check the Temperature – Make sure all heating and cooling controls are set to the most efficient temperatures.

The recommended temperature for classrooms is 18°C.

Make everyone aware that heating costs increase by around 5-10% for every 1 degree C increase in temperature so reducing the temperature in a building by 1oC will save 5% to 10% of the heating bill. Operating the heating systems for an hour less each day will also save a similar amount.

Not all parts of the school need to be at the same temperature – so make sure temperature controls are set and adjusted to reflect different uses and activities in different areas or rooms.

Check timers so they reflect actual hours of use and are set to the right date and time (particularly after the clocks go forward or back).

3. Turn Things Off – and wherever possible, automate this process with controls, timers and system setups.

@jointhepod.org

Lights – Lighting accounts for around half of the electricity used in a typical school.

Natural light should be used instead of classroom lights wherever feasible. Encourage teachers to fully open their blinds before classes start and check on the amount of available light at the beginning of each lesson. This way, they can make adjustments and choose the best lighting for their pupils. Also, make sure that windows and skylights are cleaned regularly to allow for maximum natural light.

Labelling light switches is a simple way to help ensure that only required lights are turned on.

Get your Eco Team/Champions to remind staff and students to play their part by turning off lights when they leave a room. This could cut school lighting costs by up to 15%.

Wherever possible, switch to LED lights – they use up to 85% less energy than traditional bulbs. They improve the quality of light and last far longer than older types. Installing lighting controls and using occupancy lighting sensors in infrequently used areas will also contribute to big savings.

ICT – The use of ICT has grown and grown over the past few years, and in many schools, ICT now represents one of the largest uses of energy. However, consumption can be reduced significantly by ensuring energy saving settings are turned on wherever possible and equipment is powered down/turned off when not in use

Encourage all staff and students to manually turn off monitors when they are not being used. Monitors are responsible for almost two-thirds of a computer’s total energy consumption, so if they are on 24 hours a day, each school PC will cost £25 a year to run.

Appliances should be switched off at the wall where possible to conserve energy. Where this is not possible, an automated system shut-down should be developed outside of school hours to ensure any ICT equipment left on at the end of the day is not wasting energy when out of use. This is particularly true for PCs and Interactive Display Screens.

Vending Machines – vending machines dispensing non- perishable items should be switched off when the school day ends – by switching them off out of hours, you could save up to £85 per machine every year

Automation – Where systems (such as Building Management Systems) have the functionality built in to monitor and set timed or controlled use, now is the time to make sure these are working, set correctly and most importantly, are being used.

Modern heating controls are accurate, tamperproof and have the facility for 7-day programming. Heating can be set to operate at different times of the day or week to suit the occupation pattern. For the more complicated systems then staff training may be needed or advised to make sure you are making the best use of the systems you have, and any training costs will quickly be repaid.

Where systems are not smart, then investing in simple plug-in timer Switches or Thermostatic Controls to automate the turning on and off, of as many devices and bits of equipment as possible will again pay you back in no time and takes the human error out of the equation. Automation will ensure that whilst the school is not occupied in the evenings and weekends, energy is not being wasted on heating spaces and powering devices that are simply not needed.

Holidays – If I had a pound for each time I have visited a school during a holiday period to find heating systems on full blast and ICT kit left turned on, I would literally be a very rich man. This in my mind is the easiest win of all, so, it’s important to ensure that electrical devices and appliances are turned off throughout the holiday times

The school’s energy team should create a full checklist of electrical equipment – photocopiers, lights, printers, PCs, projectors, vending machines, water heaters, TVs and so on – with each device checked before the start of the holidays to make sure they are turned off.

Everyone should be made aware that devices in standby mode also continue to consume electricity.

4. Maintain & Optimise – as with many things in life, it’s a false economy to skip on maintenance and servicing; for example, if a boiler is poorly operated or maintained, this can drive up your heating costs by 30% or more. So again, before winter approaches, make sure all heating, air handling and other systems are serviced and running as well as they can be and adjusted for optimum efficiency.

5. Check Consumption, Bills and Tariffs

Many schools have recently had smart meters installed on their main incoming gas, electric and water supplies. These provide information about how much energy is used and when. This will help you to understand your energy use and how it can be reduced. If you have a smart meter, learn the best way to use it.

Use your meters for energy monitoring and benchmarking. Monitoring meter readings regularly is a low or no-cost measure that enables you to monitor energy uses and patterns.

Look out for fluctuations in energy use patterns, especially spikes of energy consumption out of hours (i.e. weekends, evenings or in the early hours of the morning), and investigate. They may have a perfectly normal explanation, but more likely than not, it will lead you to boilers and systems with timers set incorrectly, faulty systems or components turning on and off when not needed and systems left on when they should be turned off.

For a Secondary School with a large site or an Academy Trust with multiple sites, then I would strongly advise signing up to the Energy Sparks (https://energysparks.uk ) services where “Energy Sparks provides an online energy analysis tool and energy education programme specifically designed to help schools reduce their electricity and gas usage through the analysis of smart meter data.”

@energysparks.uk

With regard to bills and bill checking, then this needn’t be complicated and is definitely worthwhile, don’t assume your bills are 100% correct as far too often they are not! Double check you are not paying VAT at 20% (Schools should only pay 5% and 0% Climate Charge Levy) If you buy your energy through a Broker, then bill checking and validation are services they should offer to you. So check that your supplier is providing these services and then make sure you take some time to understand and analyse your bills with them. As a minimum, you should be confident that:

Your bills are accurate and based on actual meter readings, so you only pay for what you use

You understand if energy usage is up or down compared to previous years

You identify unexpectedly high or unusual patterns of energy use so that quick action can be take

6. Make your Own energy – with energy prices so high and rising then, the business case for installing Solar Panels has never been better. There are a number of financial models to help fund Solar schemes, and in some cases, grants are available. However, the scheme I like most is run by The Schools’ Energy Co-operative https://schools-energy-coop.co.uk

“The Schools’ Energy Co-operative installs community funded solar panel systems on schools free of charge as well as paying all its profits to its member schools. As a social enterprise, we are dedicated to supporting our school members and providing an alternative to the prevailing commercial rent a roof or leasing model. Central to this is our aspiration to retain as much as possible of the benefits for the schools, their students and the surrounding communities. We also work with our school members and local community groups to maximise the environmental, educational and community impact of the solar installations.”

@energy4all.co.uk

For more information on how enFrame’s energy experts can help your school set a pathway to Net Zero then please see our net-zero page or contact us here.

As we have emerged from a world dominated by the challenges of COVID, the education sector, like many others, has been able to draw a breath and refocus on other priorities, including Climate Change. Cop26 in November 2021 helped focus minds, and just prior to the conference, the Department for Education (DfE) published their draft Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy outlining five action areas:

Post COP26, the DfE then entered into a widespread consultation phase before publishing their final Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy in April 2022. This builds on the 5 Action Areas adding additional scope to some of them as well as detail, some commitments and in a few places, a few targets.

The most noteworthy targets include:

· In Autumn 2022 – launch of the new ‘National Education Nature Park’ and ‘Climate Leaders Awards’

· By 2023 – develop a Primary Science Model Curriculum

· In 2023 – start rolling out carbon literacy training for at least one person in every locally maintained nursery, school, college and university to build their knowledge of climate change

· By 2025 – require that every school will have a Sustainability Action Plan in place

· By 2025 – aim to introduce a natural history GCSE

So how has this been received?

I think it’s true to say that the reception has been mixed, but I personally think it does represent a big step forward and hopefully marks the end of a lost decade. For the first time since the DCSF (Department for Children, Schools & Families) published its ‘Climate Change and Schools’ in 2010, schools once again have a clear and sensible Sustainability Strategy to take guidance from and a clear direction of travel to follow.

@departmentforchildrenschoolsandfamilies

What happened to the DCSF ambition of every school becoming a net zero school by 2020, you might ask? well, I can only speculate that the conveyor of challenges and change brought about by Austerity (inc savage funding cuts), Academisation, and finally, the COVID pandemic have simply combined to keep sustainability and net zero on the back burner.

However, getting started or, more accurately, knowing how and where to start, is perhaps still the biggest obstacle for many schools, as Climate Change can simply be overwhelming. So in this context, the new DfE Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy should be welcomed as it can hopefully provide that starting point and the impetus to build momentum across the sector, and the good news is that there does seem to be evidence to suggest that the strategy is already having an impact. I am seeing and, in fact, working with a growing number of individual Schools and Academy Trusts who are already starting to put in place their Sustainability Action Plans, recruiting Sustainability Managers, investing in staff training and implementing a range of energy-saving initiatives.

However, despite welcoming the strategy and recognising that it definitely represents a big step forward, it is also fair to say that my personal view and that of many others (see https://tinyurl.com/mpb5f4ak as an example of a typical critique) is that it’s too little too late! It lacks urgency, commitment and funding and will do precious little to ease the climate anxiety for all young people, which is a very real and present worry https://theecologist.org/2021/sep/14/crisis-youth-climate-anxiety

“This study paints a horrific picture of widespread climate anxiety in our children and young people. It suggests for the first time that high levels of psychological distress in youth is linked to government inaction.”

Caroline Hickman, from the University of Bath

“It’s so damaging to put this problem on the shoulders of young people”

Beth Irving, a 19-year-old climate activist from Cardiff

In 2019 Greta Thunberg made this plea to all those in a position of authority:

“You have a responsibility to act ….. the bigger your platform the bigger your responsibility ….. I don’t want your hope …. I want you to act .. Act as you would in a crisis. .. I want you to act as if the house was on fire!!

Sadly, the DfE Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy, although a step in the right direction, is not acting as if the house is on fire! It should come as no surprise then to find out that students in this country and, in fact, across the world are likely to re-commence direct action and protest across all education settings this Autumn in an attempt to force more urgent action.

@fridaysforfuture

“They train us for a world that has no future, a world of fossil capitalism. They want us to sit in school and learn as if everything was fine. But the world we are learning for – the world that created the climate crisis – has no future. The big question of our generation, “How do we create a world without climate catastrophe?”, will not be answered by sitting in school.

@endfossiloccupy

Between September and December 2022, the climate justice movement youth is going to occupy hundreds of schools and universities all over the world.” https://endfossil.com

For more information on how enFrame can help your school set a pathway to NetZero, develop a sustainability strategy and demonstrate leadership in safeguarding the futures for all our young people, then please see our net-zero page and contact us here.

ICT Strategy and Sustainability

One of the most common questions I am asked about ICT and sustainability is “where do I start?”

It’s a very valid question, and the prospect of trying to change a whole ICT provision to consume less energy and have a much lower carbon footprint can seem particularly challenging given the rapid rate of change in technology. The first steps don’t have to be particularly onerous, difficult, or indeed expensive, though, as one of the most effective first steps can be to consider sustainability as part of your longer-term ICT Strategy.

Firstly, it’s worth taking time out to consider what you want to achieve, and the timescale that you want to achieve it in. It may be most appropriate to swap out hardware and equipment within the usual refresh cycles, and setting a target for reducing energy consumption at a point in the future gives a clear statement of intent whilst also enabling the changes to be made in a managed and controlled way.

An ICT Strategy is the ideal starting point for understanding and working out how ICT and technology generally are going to work in the future and how they will contribute towards lowering your carbon footprint. These may be relatively simple steps like moving from a fixed desktop-based solution to more mobile devices, it may be moving server and storage technologies to the cloud, or it might include more complex things like incorporating new buildings and environmental monitoring into your solution. Either way, an ICT Strategy is the right starting point to make the link between what you need your ICT provision to do and how you will achieve this in a sustainable way.

An ICT Strategy is also a great place to identify when and how you are going to move to a sustainable future, how much it is likely to cost (and, of course, what you need to budget to make it happen), as well as identifying the key policies and associated documents that you need to produce or update to make sure everyone in your organisation is on board and understands what’s happening. Similarly, your ICT Strategy can identify training and development needs across the organisation if you are changing or adapting technology.

A good place to start is an ICT Strategy Group, with key stakeholders across your organisation brought together to discuss the different ways that your organisation uses ICT and how you can adapt your technology and its usage to be more sustainable. It is also recommended that key members of your organisation attend a Carbon Literacy Training Course to brush up on the latest thinking and ideas for sustainability. You can get further information about relevant courses from the Carbon Literacy Project.

If you are interested in learning more about ICT and sustainability, sign up for our newsletter below or contact us for support and information on more ways to become greener and sustainable.

Following the emotional closing stages of the Conference of the Parties in Glasgow (COP26 November 2021) and the many hard-won promises and pledges achieved, then what progress has been made? To answer this question then, let’s remind ourselves of what progress was made at COP26:

‘Before the Paris agreement was signed in 2015, the world was on track for 6C of warming.
After Paris, that came down to 4C.
The pledges submitted in the run-up to the Glasgow Cop took that down to 2.7C, and over the fortnight of the summit fell again to 2.4C.
Crucially, if (and it is a big if) all the net zero pledges made this year are also enacted, we will be on track for 1.8C.
If China, the world’s biggest emitter, starts improving its climate performance (it barely budged an inch in Glasgow), it will make a huge difference.
Suddenly “keeping 1.5C alive” does not seem far out of reach.’ Published by the Times Environment

For many involved in the sustainability industries and following the climate crisis closely, myself included, then progress at COP26 was never going to deliver what we would have liked or indeed what was needed. Still, in fairness, it did exceed most of our expectations. There was definitely an air of optimism fuelled by a global political rhetoric of a post covid future in which the world would be building back better and building back greener. Unfortunately, this momentum has faltered as the energy and cost of living crisis has unfolded along with the war in Ukraine. So, as we enter the second half of 2022, this optimism has waned, and it definitely feels like a case of two steps forward and one step back in the fight against climate change.

@theguardian

Two steps forward and cause for genuine optimism can be seen in the pace of innovation, investment and adoption in/of renewable technologies. Every day exciting new technologies and solutions are coming to the fore, whether it’s sand and salt batteries for storing excess renewable energy, the rapid switch to and uptake of EVs, renewable tide power, increasing output and reducing costs of Solar Panels, amazing rewilding projects, commitments to end single-use plastics and many more like them. Closer to home then, the Department for Education published their Sustainability and Climate Strategy in April, and this sets out a clear sustainability pathway for all schools and support for all schools to have an Action Plan in place by 2025.

© polarnightenergy.fi

However, to counter this with at least one step backwards, then the political leadership and momentum evident in the immediate aftermath of Glasgow has floundered on the twin rocks of the energy and cost of living crisis. This has seen much slower progress than was promised at COP26 and, in some cases and even worse, backtracking by many countries on their commitments and pledges. It has also seen a misguided and dangerous political rush in the name of energy security, to invest in and sign off on more fossil fuel extraction/exploration, exactly at the time when we should be ceasing all future activities. It is also, therefore, doubly depressing and disappointing that the UK, as the current President of COP, should be suffering such a lack of leadership and commitment, as demonstrated by all the candidates in the current conservative party leadership elections.

@theguardian

So you have to conclude that as our politicians fiddle, Rome burns (literally)! This week alone has seen a climate-induced heatwave with fires raging in Yorkshire, across Dorset, Salisbury plain, Portugal, Greece, California and even on a London railway bridge. It seems to me that our political systems and our politicians on their own can only ever respond to and focus on the short term and so how bad does it need to get before they will act? Whilst we wait for the uncomfortable answer to this question, then surely it is incumbent on all of us to take personal responsibility, make the changes that need to be made in our day-to-day lives and demand more from our political leaders to keep Climate Change top of their priorities, no matter what!

For all involved in education then, I also believe that there is an extra burden and responsibility to demonstrate the climate leadership and action to our young people that is so lacking from our politicians.

For more information on how enFrame can help your school set a pathway to NetZero, develop a sustainability strategy and demonstrate leadership in safeguarding the futures for all our young people, then please see our net-zero page and contact us here.

ICT and Sustainability

Technology changes frequently, and trying to spot the next big thing can be very frustrating. It can feel even worse when the next big thing does come along, and we aren’t as prepared as we could be, and our response can feel rushed and not thought through well enough. For ICT in Education, one of the biggest changes coming is the move to more sustainable solutions. It’s an inevitability given the Government’s climate change targets as we need to find ways of cutting our energy consumption and moving to renewable sources. We also need to consider the carbon footprint of the things we consume and use – technology included.

So why is sustainability so important for ICT, and why, particularly in the context of Education? ICT usage has grown vastly over the last 10 to 15 years, and technology is now an intrinsic part of a school’s ability to deliver. At the same time, energy consumption for ICT within schools has grown and, on average, now accounts for 40 to 45 percent of all electric usage. This makes ICT one of the biggest consumers of electricity, and for many of the systems in use, they will be consuming power even when there are no pupils in the building. In fact, nearly 30 per cent of the electricity consumed by ICT in the average school is consumed out of hours – either at night, at weekends, or during the holidays.

ICT is now being refreshed at a shorter point in its lifecycle than even five years ago, as technology changes rapidly, which means that the overall carbon footprint of ICT in schools is also increasing. It may well feel like technology is at odds with the sustainability agenda, but it doesn’t have to be if sustainability is considered during the ICT procurement process. Solutions are beginning to emerge that can help reduce both the energy consumption and the carbon footprint of ICT solutions in schools. Manufacturers and suppliers are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of developing, delivering, and supplying sustainable ICT solutions to the education sector.

enFrame has been working with a broad range of suppliers, schools, trusts, and government agencies for some years to understand how sustainability can be integrated into the ICT procurement lifecycle. As a result, we have now launched our own ICT framework, which is geared towards schools and has sustainable solutions at its heart. Over the next few months, we will be publishing a range of blogs that look deeper into the challenges of sustainability and ICT in schools and the various solutions that are being developed and trialled now. We will also look deeper into the procurement lifecycle for ICT in schools to understand how you could change your approach to buying and delivering ICT and how the new enFrame ICT framework can help you to move towards more sustainable ICT in school.

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enFrame is excited to announce that we have teamed up with the Green Schools Project to help schools implement and achieve their transition towards net zero.

This collaboration shall provide a programme that delivers support and guidance on the impact of climate change while demonstrating practical steps on how to reduce emissions and promote behavioural change. This fully-funded zero-carbon schools programme shall be available to all schools to apply from September 2021.

Here at enFrame, we believe strongly in encouraging both teacher and pupil involvement in the net-zero journey, by engaging and empowering children to be a part of programmes that take on environmental issues. Initiatives like these, especially when it involves children, can be incredibly powerful as they often result in inspiring change not only within the school but in the broader community as well.

The zero-carbon schools’ programme works towards providing much-needed funding and support for schools to reach net-zero and become greener, cleaner environments. The pilot programme has seen great results where pupils have been involved in encouraging their school to install solar panels, raising awareness on saving energy, reducing food waste and encouraging more low carbon and healthy dishes on the school menu.

This programme shall include, at an overview practical support for schools to help them reach their net-zero targets:

• • Plans and resources for a series of 30 pupils, the sessions shall be suitable for years 4-9;
  • A monthly online ‘how to’ session for teachers delivering the programme;
  • A buddy and peer support system; and
  • Support to calculate the school’s carbon footprint.

There is also a premium programme that includes an assembly, a teacher training session, an introductory call with key staff, and support calls each term for any schools that are interested in and have the budget available for this.

If you are interested, please contact Beth Newman on beth.newman@greenschoolsproject.org.uk and she will send an information sheet and school agreement.

What are the Practical Steps Schools & Academy Trusts can take to reduce Carbon emissions and move towards a NetZero future?

This is the last part in a series of blogs, where we have aimed to offer answers and insight into the Practical Steps Schools & Academy Trusts can take to reduce Carbon emissions and move towards a NetZero future. We have done this by examining a different aspect of NetZero/de-carbonisation each week and in this blog, we finish by looking at the benefits and easy wins that should naturally follow from taking a long-term strategic approach.

In the last two blogs in particular we have discussed that setting a path to Net Zero is both complex and long term in its nature and as such organisational success is best achieved through adopting a correspondingly long-term strategic approach and securing the services of a specialist Energy Services Partner (ESP). So what are the benefits of this approach?

1. Let the specialist take the strain – one of the benefits of partnering with a specialist ESP is that they not only bring expertise and capability to the partnership but they also bring capacity which is sorely needed in most Schools, Academies and Trusts. This extra capacity can then be put to good use, by commissioning a comprehensive estate wide survey and data gathering exercise to provide the detailed information required for developing your strategic Net Zero plan. A specialist ESP will be able to complete this task in a matter of weeks without tying up your valuable resources, to deliver the first easy win – making a start without overloading your estates and SLT teams.
2. A credible plan with credible Net Zero targets – armed with the survey data your ESP can then help you develop a credible multi-phase, multi-year decarbonisation plan that will provide confidence in setting realistic and achievable short, medium and long term NetZero targets i.e 2025, 2035 & 2050. Having such a credible plan and targets will have many benefits, but for a senior leader, in particular, the biggest win will be the ability to communicate with confidence to all stakeholders, the seriousness of the organisational commitment to Net Zero and in turn, start the process of getting that all important buy-in.
3. A baseline to measure progress against – a good plan based on good data, will also provide the baseline against which progress can be measured, reported on and continuous improvements achieved. Progress will most likely be measured in savings, savings of CO2e and savings in £, but calculating these accurately is not easy and this is where your specialist ESP should be able to help once more. A good ESP will follow the International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol (IPMVP) to ensure accurate reporting – having accurate and verifiable savings data will not only make your statutory reporting a lot easier e.g. SECR but it will also help to give confidence to all stakeholders that your plan is delivering and it will be key to informing your ongoing investment planning and budgeting.
4. Securing grant funding and finance – having a long-term plan with credible and measurable savings targets in place will enable your organisation to bid for and secure more of the Public Sector Decarbonisation (PSDS) funding as it is made available. Having a plan in place with the supporting savings data is important to secure funding as each funding round has a set of savings CO2e and £ criteria that need to be met, however having a plan in place that can enable you to make grant funding applications quickly and get to the head of the queue is perhaps even more important. The last two rounds of PSDS have been oversubscribed many times over and all funding for PSDS2 in April this year was awarded within 72 hours! Where private finance is required then meeting the due diligence criteria required by lenders can only be done with the support of a detailed plan and specialist support.
5. The Whole is greater than the sum of the parts – in the most recent PSDS funding guidance applicants are encouraged to take a “whole building” approach to decarbonising their heating i.e. asking applicants to consider all factors that contribute to a building’s energy consumption together to identify the most effective way of making savings. In essence, you need to take a holistic approach to maximise savings and to building an investment or savings plan where quick wins (e.g. LED Lighting), fund medium wins (e.g. Solar PV) and the savings generated by both short and medium-term measures are re-invested to help fund the long term projects and the ultimate goal of Net-Zero. A good example of this is where you can combine Solar PV with battery technology, for example, to significantly reduce your electricity costs and that in turn makes new electric based technologies viable where on their own they might not be.

enFrame understood from an early stage the importance of having a strategic approach to energy efficiency and Net-Zero planning and so with the help and vision of Aspirations Academy Trust, we put in place an OJEU ‘Energy Services Partnering’ procurement framework OJEU Ref No 338164-2020 (2020/s 137-338164), specifically targeted at Schools, Academies and Academy Trusts. So this is the last or perhaps the first easy win for any School or Trust Senior Leader as it provides an oven-ready, easy and quick way of securing specialist support whilst also ticking all the public procurement boxes along the way.

For more information on how we can help or any of our partners and frameworks then please visit the link here or get in contact with us today.