DfE Strategy
The Department for Education has created a sustainability and climate change strategy for the education and children’s services systems. Find out more below.
Education plays a vital role in:
– helping to tackle climate change
– creating a better, greener world for future generations
We can all have a positive impact, influence, and inspire communities by improving the following:
– sustainability of the environment in and around education settings
– knowledge and understanding of children and young people
To do this, the Department for Education (DfE) has developed a sustainability and climate change strategy to:
– help the education sector and children’s services systems do this
– inspire action on the international stage
While developing this strategy, the DfE engaged with the following:
– educators
– subject specialists
– representative bodies
– leading experts
– young people
The DfE strategy
The DfE strategy responds to recommendations for education from the following:
– Committee for Climate Change
– Dasgupta Review
– Green Jobs Taskforce report.
It builds on existing work being done across the sector. It will support the delivery of the UK government’s 25-year Environment Plan and Net Zero Strategy.
The strategy’s vision is for the United Kingdom to be the world-leading education sector in sustainability and climate change by 2030. In England, the DfE will achieve this through 4 strategic aims:
1. Excellence in education and skills for a changing world: preparing all young people for a world impacted by climate change through learning and practical experience.
2. Net zero: reducing direct and indirect emissions from education and care buildings, driving innovation to meet legislative targets, and providing opportunities for children and young people to engage practically in the transition to net zero.
3. Resilient to climate change: adapting our education and care buildings and systems to prepare for the effects of climate change.
4. A better environment for future generations: enhancing biodiversity, improving air quality, and increasing access to and connection with nature in and around education and care settings.
The strategy includes the following essential action areas:
– climate education
– green skills and careers
– the education estate and digital infrastructure
– operations and supply chains
– international action
DfE has stated that they will continue working with the sector and young people as this strategy is implemented.
Find out more via
Sustainability and climate change strategy – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
The video link above is a video summary of:
– the aims of the strategy
– 2 key initiatives, the National Education Nature Park and Climate Leaders Award
In December 2023, an update was published by the DfE to explain the progress so far:
One section focuses on how the government are continuing to work with educators to make sure that young people understand the facts and impact of climate change, to develop the skills for the future and also develop curriculum resources to support teaching and learning (Oak National Academy)
https://www.educationnaturepark.org.uk/
Additionally, there is a focus on educational buildings and infrastructure to forge towards net zero buildings for schools and colleges. New buildings (blocks, schools and colleges) are being built to be energy efficient, net zero ready and more resilient to climate change.
Gen Zero
So what is ‘Gen Zero’?
GenZero is an innovative research project to transform school construction in the United Kingdom. Supported by the Department for Education (DfE) and in partnership with construction innovators, GenZero seeks to create a new ultra-low carbon building standard for schools and places nature at the heart of the educational environment.
“GenZero will inspire a new era of sustainable schools, influence how we design and challenge the entire industry to do the same.” Alan Fogarty – Partner, Cundall
Growing evidence shows that buildings that provide good quality environments, including access to green space and excellent air quality, are better for healthy and productive outcomes and promote well-being.
Here are some key points about GenZero:
- Designed with Nature: GenZero envisions schools that are environmentally friendly and promote health and well-being.
- Low Environmental Impact: GenZero aims to develop a construction kit of parts, providing a platform for building schools that can withstand the challenges posed by climate change.
- Long-Term Value: The project emphasizes whole-life value, ensuring that the new generation of school designs considers long-term benefits and adaptability.
Schools of the Future
The Vision
1. A Protective Landscape
The landscape around the schools has been thoughtfully designed to protect against the elements with minimal disruption to the existing environment. Rain gardens are planted alongside buildings to make the most out of runoff from heavy rainfall, and trees protect the building’s facade and provide solar shading.
2. A Healthy Environment
Easily accessible green spaces measure learners’ health, well-being, and educational attainment; therefore, our schools are designed to make the most out of the environment. The schools have dedicated spaces for outdoor learning, physical and social activities, horticultural areas, bike stores, and many trees.
3. Engaging Outdoor Spaces
Encouraging active engagement with the outdoors means creating outdoor spaces that are stimulating, useful, and considerate of the local environment. Pedestrian routes are made of carefully selected materials that weave through mixed meadow planting and existing woodland, leading to outdoor seating and dining areas made from sustainably sourced, home-grown timber.
4. The Central Commons
At the heart of our schools is the ‘commons,’ a clearly defined campus civic and social centre that includes the cafeteria, library, and fully configurable teaching spaces. The architecture of the commons works in harmony with its surroundings, with sustainable timber construction and expansive glass windows strengthening the connection to the landscape.
Image via the Gen Zero website. Find out more about this transformative project here: Background — GenZero.
Several primary and secondary schools in the North West of England have been involved in a pioneering project with Cundall and GenZero to design and construct new sustainable buildings. This involved re-modelling, refurbishing, and building new elements for each school.
North West Priority Schools Building Programme – Projects – Cundall
Sustainable Education:
So, what is sustainable education? It is an approach that aims to educate students to be ‘global citizens for sustainable development’. This means finding and adopting lasting solutions to social, environmental and economic issues. Raising awareness – starting in the classroom and looking at ways you and your organisation can adopt more sustainable practices.
As educators, we can start by developing knowledge, skills and values in our students to guide and motivate them to be more sustainable in their own lives, at home and in their communities.
How many times have you sent something to the printer, then realised that it’s the wrong page, not printing the document you wanted, or it doesn’t look correct?
As educators (and in our organisations), we can become more sustainable in our practice. Many schools and colleges are moving towards paperless organisations. This does not mean that there is no paper, but that we all work to minimise the amount of paper/photocopying/letters/newsletters, etc, that are generated and used, but instead use digital alternatives.
Think about your own organisation; how many times has a letter been sent home which ended up in the bottom of the student’s bag and never got read until the end of term when the bag was emptied, or a trip form which was lost or had something spilt on it? Hence, it was illegible, so the student had to get another copy.
Moving to a ‘digital’ organisation, these paper generation tasks/exercises can be minimised using emails, digital letters, and parental portals to get important messages and trip information out quickly, effectively and sustainably.
How often have you been in your classroom or walked by someone else on your way out, leaving the IWB (interactive whiteboard) or projector switched on or on standby? Or have you been the last person (end of the day) to use the Computing suite and ask the students to log off but not shut them down?
A photocopier left on overnight uses enough energy to produce over 1500 copies, requiring you to plant ten trees to offset the carbon produced!
Desktop computers consume far more electricity than laptops and tablets.
Studies have shown that UK primary Schools produce 45kg of paper waste per pupil per year!
When it comes to exam time, how many of you have, year on year, produced huge volumes of printed revision, prep materials and resources for your students, for them to all end up in the bin/waste at the end of the year, only to be generated/printed/copied all over again for the next cohort?
By you and your organisation moving towards more digital devices/edtech, there is the opportunity to generate less paper, e.g. e-portfolios, online learning resources, setting assignments using digital resources such as Assignments and Classwork in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, etc., to students, digital policy documents and onboarding resources to replace large ring binders. Organisations moving towards 1:1 devices are reducing their carbon footprint, as there is no need for large banks of devices to be charged internally each night. The devices they purchase should be those that offer longer battery life to last the length of the school day. The student is responsible for taking the device home and charging it up, ready for the next day. Thus establishing a levelling cost of charging 1000+ devices in school to each student, therefore helping the school to become more sustainable on this front – economies of scale on the energy front. Such edtech adoption also reduces the need for printing and paper-based resources as the students have the ability to access what they need at any time, anywhere and on different devices. As opposed to many paper-based resources, it poses the question – “What happens once they’ve been used once?”
Could your school/college be using more efficient processes? Using digital alternatives to paper-generated ones, e.g., school trip authorisation, school calendars, letters home, etc. Parental portals, digital communications and SMS services are becoming more commonplace in UK schools.
Does your school/college have smart sensors to control heating/room temperatures or to switch lights off automatically in rooms?
Does your school/college have a system which automatically shuts down EdTech/devices at the end of the school day? If not, who is responsible for ensuring this energy-saving task is carried out daily within your school? If this is not part of your current school policy, then it may be worth asking your IT Technical to look at possible implementation scripts. Alternatively, device power settings can be managed by auto-shutdowns to save energy. Projectors generate a lot of heat and, therefore, waste energy when they are not being used.
Does your school have a ‘waste management’ policy? What happens with old devices and IT equipment? Some organisations offer sustainability packages to recycle and recondition old devices when they are traded in for upgrades. Also, look for organisations that do paper and toner recycling options.
Print management – does your organisation use a system such as Paper Cut? Homepage | PaperCut, Which offers print management software to minimise waste: The Complete Guide to Printing in education (papercut.com). These types of systems allow you to have a more efficient, energy-saving, and secure printing system, e.g., good practice if you are printing confidential materials and your printer is in a different location.
Also, it’s important to think about your own practices in the classroom and the use of edtech and sustainable processes for teaching and learning. Educators using applications such as SWAY for school newsletters or revision resources: Microsoft Sway | Create visually striking newsletters, presentations and documents in minutes (cloud.microsoft) and Wakelets: Wakelet for Educators to funnel resources into and then distribute digitally to your students. These resources are then easily and more efficiently updated and reused from one year or group to the next with excessive printing. They also have the benefit of being able to add multimedia elements, e.g. video and audio, which are not possible with printed materials.
Additional applications such as Assignments (Create an assignment in Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Support), OneNote (Microsoft OneNote | The digital note-taking app for your devices), (Google Sites (How to use Google Sites – Sites Help) and Padlet (For education – Padlet) allow you to collaborate different resources for your students.
Creating digital webpages and templates using SWAY or OneNote for revision purposes allows you as the educator to give the students the digital document that they can then add to themselves – personalising their own learning and adding in additional resources such as audio or sites that they have found or created themselves. Microsoft and Google regularly review their applications with a focus on championing sustainability for communication, collaboration, teaching and learning. Allowing organisations and educators to play their part in developing a sustainable future and reducing the carbon footprints of both individuals and organisations.
Ofsted and Energy Efficiency:
In 2022, OFSTED produced an OFSTED strategy 2022-27 report with a sustainability and environmental goals section. The report states that “Over the course of this strategy, we will fulfil government expectations and requirements to reduce our impact on the environment in line with the Greening Government Commitments.” Although vague at this stage, it is evident that OFSTED will review schools’ sustainability strategies in due course.
Schools should be encouraged to closely follow the ISO 14001 standards to set up an effective environment management system. This would help organisations identify, manage, monitor and control their environmental issues in a “holistic” manner. Schools should be encouraged to ensure that their suppliers comply with this standard as well. The benefits have proved to be:
- Demonstrate compliance with current and future statutory and regulatory requirements.
- Increase leadership involvement and engagement of employees.
- Improve the school’s reputation and the confidence of stakeholders through strategic communication.
- Achieve strategic business aims by incorporating environmental issues into business management.
- Encourage better environmental performance of suppliers by integrating them into the school’s business systems.
Digital infrastructure is an important element of the OFSTED strategy. Currently, information is limited since research must be undertaken and pilot schemes completed before the results can be shared. It is expected that this will become available from 2025. OFSTED are likely to review sustainability within schools in line with Government commitment in due course. Therefore, the DEFRA guidance is the best place for schools to evaluate their use of ICT and review the energy usage and what can be carried out to reduce it and, therefore, costs. Schools should review and take up the ISO 14001 standard and use it to help set up an effective environment management system.
Actions for Schools:
A Typical School Carbon Footprint
Note: WEEE – waste electrical and electronic equipment
Source: Sustainable Impact | HP® Official Site
It is estimated that in the UK alone, we throw away 2 million tonnes of WEEE each year – which could otherwise be recycled and used in other products.
“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 many of the systems in use will be consuming power even when there are no pupils in the building.
In fact, approximately 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.” Mark Platt enFrame cic
“The average Secondary School Electricity bill is approx. £80,000 – £100,000 per annum and therefore £25,000 -£30, 000 could be easily saved if IT was switched off out of hours”
A change in behaviour within a school/college can reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions by around 15%.
So where can you start as a school/college?
Ensure energy-saving settings are turned on wherever possible and equipment is powered down when not in use.
The top five things for schools to consider when making their ICT use more sustainable are:
- Turn it off!
- ICT is one of a school’s largest uses of electricity (40-45%).
- It is estimated that 30% of the energy consumed by ICT in the average school is consumed outside of school hours (Mark Platt enFrame).
- Everyone should be made aware that devices in standby mode still consume electricity.
- Mobile equipment should also be charged during off-peak hours (overnight).
- Appliances/devices should be switched off at the wall during weekends and holidays to conserve energy. Or an automated system shutdown should be implemented.
- Establish a Sustainability Committee/Group within the school.
- Schools have committees for many important areas – recognise the importance of sustainability by setting up a group. Allow students to pave the way.
- Involve students from each year group – to voice their innovative ideas.
- Consider becoming an Eco School. Visit Home – Eco Schools (eco-schools.org.uk)
- Managing the ICT Network more efficiently and make use of automation.
- Activate the energy-saving tools and software in all your ICT systems.
- Consider replacing projectors with LED interactive boards. A PC with a projector uses 1000 watts, whereas an interactive board uses 180 watts (no PC). Turn off interactivity on the AV boards if you are not using the interactive features.
- Use energy-efficient ethernet, which has auto-port shutdown, efficient cooling and no fans.
- Use Green Access Points – each access point can cut electricity usage from 21 watts in operation mode to 6 watts in sleep mode. This can result in savings of more than 70%.
- When refreshing equipment, consider laptops over refurbishing older desktops.
- Modern laptops and computers are far more energy-efficient than older desktops.
- A desktop typically uses 60-200 watts to run and requires a separate monitor, whereas a laptop uses 20-50 watts of electricity.
- Move your data off-premise and into the cloud.
- Servers in schools take up a lot of energy. Move your data into the cloud, where it is stored more efficiently and with improved security.
- A study found that ‘the cloud’ is as much as 98% more carbon efficient than on-premises solutions.
- New processors are being designed to provide much-improved performance/watt. These processors will be used in data centre servers. By 2025, it will be significantly more efficient than the industry rate.
Additionally, how about making your own energy?
With energy prices so high and rising, 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 available, e.g. “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.