Making schools sustainable

Sustainability and climate action plans in schools

Is Your School Ready to meet its Climate and Sustainability Obligations?

What is changing?

The DfE expects all schools to have a Sustainability Lead and a Climate Action Plan in place by 2025, to help tackle the climate crisis at workplace level - an expectation supported by the NEU. 

What is sustainability leadership?

The NEU recommends that sustainability leadership is seen as a team activity, with SLT commitment - harnessing expertise from staff in diverse roles and with union reps, particularly green reps and health and safety reps, challenging schools to go further.  The NEU has recently launched a Green Reps Training Course to ensure green work in school is union-led, and complimentary to, rather than in tension with, other union priorities such as tackling workload and funding campaigns. 

The team should work in partnership with the NEU green rep if your school has one. Alternatively, if your school does not yet have a green rep, the Sustainability Lead should work with the NEU rep and or health and safety rep.

What is a climate action plan?

The DfE guidance states that a climate action plan should typically cover the following 4 areas, to align with DfE’s sustainability and climate change strategy:

• decarbonisation, for example taking steps to reduce carbon emissions by becoming more energy efficient;
• adaptation and resilience, such as taking actions to reduce the risk of flooding and overheating;
• biodiversity, for example engaging with the National Education Nature Park, which provides opportunities for learning about climate, nature and how to increase biodiversity on your site;
• climate education and green careers, such as ensuring the education you provide gives knowledge-rich and comprehensive teaching about climate change, with teaching staff supported to offer this;

Accessing support for starting a climate action plan

• Discuss with members how far your school has got and raise with SLT to ensure there is commitment to act on these obligations by 2025.
• Visit Sustainability Support for Education to discover where to start or what to do next. The site includes a range of resources, best practice, and tools to help your school develop, or build on, its climate action plan, for all phases of education. Share with your SLT if they aren’t already aware.
• The Climate Ambassadors Scheme, provides free local expert support and peer to peer learning opportunities, as does Let’s Go Zero, a national campaign uniting teachers, pupils, parents and their schools as they all work together to be zero carbon by 2030; both provide resources to help schools get started.
• Encourage your branch/district to set up a network of Sustainability Leads and Green Representatives, to share experiences and best practice that others can learn from, and to join up on work to make it more impactful.

Retrofit in the education sector

Simple adaptations to education buildings can help meet climate targets, make buildings more resilient to climate change, more energy efficient and healthier places to work and learn.

A TUC report notes that even relatively newly built classrooms overheat up to 40 per cent of the time.

This advice offers help to school and college leaders adapting education buildings to the double threat of the climate emergency and rising energy costs. It can also be used by NEU workplace reps and health and safety reps to raise the issue of upgrades to education buildings with leaders and employers.

What is retrofitting?

Retrofitting refers to structural changes to buildings to improve energy efficiency and resilience to the effects of climate change. Retrofitting school buildings is not a quick fix to current high energy bills but in the longer term can cut carbon emissions and enable schools to make much-needed savings.

Retrofitting ranges from double glazing and wall insulation, to more advanced green technologies like heat pumps and solar panels, that will save carbon and money in the long term.

In the short term, some simple steps can help keep buildings warm in winter and cool in summer:

• A pre-heating season boiler service and check of heating and hot water timers
• Checking that loft insulation is adequate.
• Making sure that radiators are not covered up
• Checking that lightbulbs are LED.
• Repairing leaking gutters and wet walls
• Checking appliances aren’t left on for long periods when not in use
• Checking lighting timers for internal and external lights – are lights only used when needed?
• Closing curtains at dusk in winter
• Preventing overheating by installing shading to windows. External shading is more effective than internal blinds, though both can help.
• Planting trees and other green areas outside the building to counteract the ‘heat island’ effect. Shading the playground keeps the tarmac cooler.

Foster a climate amongst staff which encourages the sharing of good ideas.

Why retrofit?

Help reduce carbon emissions

The TUC estimate that retrofitting will save a huge 1.2 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions – it’s a crucial step in achieving net zero. In a context of high energy bills, it could eventually slash costs.

Provide much needed repairs. Create safer, more inclusive buildings

Retrofitting can also address the dire need for repairs faced by schools across the country – on average £300,000-£700,000 per school according to TUC estimates. This could include asbestos removal, with the potential to mitigate serious threats to health.

More than 80 per cent of educational buildings still contain asbestos. The risk of exposing asbestos must, therefore, be considered before disturbing the fabric of any building.

In some cases, the presence of asbestos makes major structural work impossible and will require a rebuild. Even then, addressing general maintenance issues is still worthwhile.

It is vital that moving towards Net Zero does not compromise safety. The NEU campaigns alongside all the other education unions, to tackle the huge problem of asbestos in schools.

Create a comfortable working and learning environment

As temperatures become more extreme due to the climate crisis, retrofitting can make schools more comfortable and safer.

Effective mechanical ventilation systems can also assist learning since high CO2 levels reduce concentration, while better ventilation and cleaner air means less opportunity for Covid-19 and other viruses to spread.

In cold conditions there are minimum workplace temperatures which must be adhered to. The NEU has further guidance on both high and low temperatures (England / Wales) which can be used to support workers currently struggling with this in schools.

Alongside the other education unions, we have published a joint union heatwave protocol to help prepare for future extreme heat events.

Create valuable learning opportunities

Retrofitting should involve the whole school community. Today’s generation of pupils will confront the challenges of climate breakdown over the coming decades so engaging with them about solutions visible in their own school environment will offer inspiring learning opportunities.

How to get started?

Ashden Climate Action Advisers

Climate Action Advisors offer free support for schools, colleges, and nurseries across England. They suggest practical and affordable actions for schools of any size – even those that are just starting their sustainability journey. This service is part of the Let’s Go Zero campaign. Find out how to access support.

Climate Ambassadors

The Climate Ambassadors scheme provides free expertise and support to nurseries, schools and colleges to develop and deliver impactful climate action plans. The Climate Ambassadors programme is delivered by a consortium of 15 organisations. Eight universities and the Met Office host our regional hubs. Regional hubs support and connect volunteer Climate Ambassadors and education settings. They are funded by the Department of Education. Schools can ask for support from a climate ambassador.

Social enterprises

Retrofit Action for Tomorrow, works to engage schools in the process through holding workshops on the importance of energy efficient buildings in tackling the climate emergency and provides advice on how to retrofit schools to reduce carbon emissions and energy usage whilst improving the school environment.

Less CO2

The Less CO2 Campaign is a free energy efficiency programme available to any UK school, enabling schools to work together and learn from each other in clusters of 15 schools over a geographical area. School representatives, both teaching and non-teaching, can attend local workshops on energy saving, and how to teach about the link between sustainability and energy use and efficiency.

The DfE has Energy Saving guidance for education buildings

Next steps

This guide is very much a work in progress. If you are aware of other schemes, or would be willing to share any successes, please contact us: [email protected] so we can expand this guide and give others the tools to challenge their employer to do more.