Sustainable Development UK

Growing Up Green

It would be “relatively easy” for schools to cut their carbon emissions, despite most being built without sustainable considerations in mind, Jonathon Porritt, chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commission, argues. The commentator, who is also programme director and co-founder of Forum for the Future, is responding to a report released by the commission which suggested British schools could halve their carbon footprints by the year 2020. All it would take is “decisive” action from local and central government, the commission claimed.

“There is potential for schools and most other public institutions to make this level of emissions cut relatively easily. It is a question of commitment and prioritisation across the schools sector, including government and local authorities, but also including the governors and senior leadership teams of the schools themselves,” Porritt states. There is a real need for schools to respond to environmental concerns, as they contribute a “surprisingly large” amount of CO2, he continues. “In some counties schools account for over 70% of the local authority estate and in most it is above 30%. Our analysis – now widely agreed – shows that schools are about 15% of public sector footprint overall, which is just short of 2% of the total UK footprint.”

The major environmental impact of schools stems from: heating buildings which are often energy inefficient; paper, card, food and plastic waste; and “travel chaos” caused by the school run, he reports, conceding that part of this is beyond their control. “Schools have a woeful record on recycling but this is very often because of sub-standard waste services from their councils. Many school councils are enthusiastic about recycling but get thwarted in this way... Only 2% of children cycle to school in England, compared with 70% in Holland. Again, I don’t blame this on schools in the main, given the appalling state of cycle paths in this country which many parents rightly prevent their children from using.” He calls for greater support to be put in place to help schools reduce their impact. “The main point here is enabling schools through better thought through planning, transport and support services, rather than criticising schools for neglect.

“On the plus side, there are lots of positive things schools can do, from developing gardens and growing food, to getting on top of energy demand, better facilities for cyclists, green purchasing policies and the integration of sustainable development into the curriculum.”

Porritt has a number of ideas of ways in which the government could influence the greening of UK schools. He calls for carbon management to be made a “core feature” of their management, in the same way that financial performance is currently monitored. The country’s leaders should “ensure that carbon is being effectively monitored at school level through integration with standard school financial management procedures like FMSIS (a national standard for school financial management). Carbon performance should be discussed at school governing body meetings in the same breath as school budget.”

The government must also make local authorities (LAs) “crystal clear” that reducing emissions across their entire estate is a “nationally significant goal” and one which will deliver “financial and other benefits if successfully delivered”, he argues. “This would lead to rapid improvement in the carbon reduction services LAs offer to schools, which in many areas are practically non-existent.”

A “massive” invest-to-save scheme should be established, allowing schools and LAs to consider more expensive ways of increasing the energy efficiency of their buildings, Porritt urges. “This simple step would remove one of the key barriers to progress with works that will not ever squeeze inside the annual devolved capital allocation to schools otherwise,” he insists.

Porritt calls for a renewable energy services company to be created that is dedicated to large-scale renewable projects on school land. “Organisations like schools with land available in many instances should be viewing renewables as a potential surplus generating activity, covering school bills and feeding back into the grid to generate funding for education. My local secondary has a utilities bill of £200,000 a year. I have just joined its governing body and intend to cut this by 30% within two years and install renewable to cut the bills to zero.”

“Lastly, government could call on school councils to include sustainability as a priority in their work. This might come over as a tad prescriptive but many school councils are already active in this area, and to have their work recognised and amplified by ministers would be fantastic,” he states.

That is not to say the government is inactive in terms of enabling schools to become greener, Porritt notes. “The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) is introducing an e-procurement system for schools called OPEN. The aim is to entice schools and LAs into the system, where they will encounter well-selected goods and services at good value for money. DCSF is considering whether and how it can build up green choices initially and then, at a future date, start getting rid of any which do not meet green or fair-trade standards. This is an important bit of hardwiring, a little early to speak about in public, but it will allow a large amount of spending to be shifted towards default sustainable choices.”

Such a development could be particularly important for reducing the entire environmental impact of schools. Research conducted by the UK Sustainable Development Commission found 45% of school greenhouse gas emissions stem from the supply chain activities of suppliers. It argued: “This represents an opportunity for schools and LAs to extend the reach of their good practice by building sustainability into procurement contracts.”

In addition to the long-term environmental bonuses resulting from schools embracing sustainability, there are immediate benefits for the pupils attending them, the sustainability expert suggests. “It’s worth recalling the original definition of a sustainable school we adopted in 2006, which is a school that equips young people for a lifetime of sustainable living. We cannot have a situation where children are leaving school unable to think clearly about climate change, global environmental challenges, poverty, security and the other huge issues that will dominate the 21st century.”

Currently, the World Wildlife Fund and DCSF are funding soon-to-be-published research by Chris Gayford of the Institute of Education at Reading University. He is examining the ways in which youngsters are affected by their schools’ environmentally friendly developments. “The results are uniformly positive, with sustainable development providing a fantastic vehicle for encouraging pupil voice, building home/school relationships, motivating learning and creating a powerful vision for a school,” Porritt explains.

He cites an Ofsted report released in May last year, titled Schools and Sustainability. The watchdog compiled its information based on visits to 41 primary and secondary schools in 2006/07. It found: “Most of the schools visited had limited knowledge of sustainability or of related initiatives. Work on sustainability tended to be piecemeal and uncoordinated, often confined to extra-curricular activities and special events rather than being an integral part of the curriculum. Therefore, its impact tended to be short-lived and limited to small groups of pupils.” However, when lessons in sustainability took place, Ofsted reported the teaching was often “good and sometimes outstanding”, noting youngsters responded well to the opportunities presented. “In the best lessons, teachers used a range of imaginative activities so that pupils could work individually and in groups on identifying, discussing and solving practical problems, and could develop and test out their views on complex ethical issues.”

Ofsted called for higher priority to be given to sustainable schools, with funding devoted to initiatives such as staff training. It recommended the curriculum should reflect the importance of sustainability and linked more closely with programmes such as Building Schools for the Future.

Porritt adds: “DCSF is consulting on something called the school report card, which will provide all kinds of information on a school for use by parents, including Ofsted report summary, attainment standards and new areas like wider outcomes for children... To really boost attention on carbon, this report card could include the school’s carbon footprint... Using sustainable development principles to frame the Ofsted inspection framework would be another huge plus and we are moving slowly in that direction.”

He concludes: “There are a number of different areas in which schools could achieve substantial, very concrete savings from addressing different aspects of the sustainability agenda but most significantly in terms of energy, carbon and waste.” This, he believes, will benefit both the current generation of school pupils and their descendants.

Jonathon Porritt, chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commission, spoke to Felicity King-Evans, editor