‘HOW WE ARE REDUCING OUT CARBON FOOTPRINT’

Summer Term 2019

The school takes, the importance of us reducing our carbon footprint very seriously.  Whilst we have not made enormous steps we are starting to look at long-term projects and this overview is to give an update as to where we are now.

 

Lighting

Buildings that now have motion sensor switching are Moles, Pankhurst, Curie, Teresa, Theatre (partially), so that they turn off automatically when there is no movement for a period of 15 minutes.  All replacements are energy saving bulbs.

Over the summer of 2018 we had our 5 year electrical testing and it is hoped further savings will be made with a rolling programme.  All remedial works highlighted as being urgent have been completed over the spring term 2019.  Moving forward we have a plan in place to change light fittings to LED and these use a fraction of the electricity of that of the old ones.  The new fittings are guaranteed to last at least 10 years.  Work has already commenced and will be on a 3 year rolling programme.

Recycling

Recycling continues to be popular and we are always seeking to find other items, in consultation with our refuse collection/other companies that we can recycle.  We are currently looking at packaging and items of waste from the kitchen to see how this can be reduced or whether more can be recycled.  Currently we recycle – cardboard, paper and general waste.  Trying to improve this service is ongoing and currently LB Hounslow do not do any other recycling for commercial properties.  However we are always seeking ways to improve this as new companies come on board.  

New Boiler Control Panels and Sensors

Although the new boiler control panels commissioned because the old ones failed and needed to be replaced as an emergency, we took the opportunity to replace with ones that are going to give us better temperature control within buildings and help us to save on the amount of energy we use.

 

Photocopiers

New photocopiers installed during summer 2019 are much quicker and more efficient and automatically, when not in use, go on to standby in a shorter period of time  These machines are still working efficiently and still offer us the opportunity to offer ‘follow me printing which greatly reduces the cost of copying.  We are looking, as standalone printers fail, whether other larger machines with ‘follow me’ printing functionality, centrally placed, can serve other areas in the school as a more cost effective, energy efficient solution for smaller groups of people/departments, budget permitting.

Whole School Computers

Energy saving devices installed:-

• Upgraded to Windows 10 - automatically puts monitors on to ‘ power save’ after a short period of inactivity.
•  After a longer period it will turn off the hard drive and most other components.
•  In the evening we have ‘shut down script’ which runs at the end of the day – varies from day to day due to site being open longer on some days.
• SCCM installed which allows us to specify finer control over power management alongside Windows group policy as a more general power management system.

Water Management

After consideration of some of the issues we have had in the past with Thames Water and looking at our consumption we have taken the stance that where possible we would replace with more ‘consumption efficient’ toilet cisterns and taps.  These are installed in Curie and Moles student toilets and Bronte and Pankhurst staff toilets.

Thames water have now changed our meter so it is hoped that with more control over water consumption this can be better monitored.

Eco Hand Driers

Rolling programme to replace old fashioned hand driers that take a longer time to dry wet hands with new eco-friendly ones that are lower voltage and use less electricity.

General Maintenance

As part of our three year maintenance plan we have identified energy savings within certain areas of the school.  With the successful CIF bids received we have been able to update and replace some of the worst old metal windows and doors, across the school with new PVC ones.  We have also, following two successful bids to get additional money from the Governments Capital Investment Fund, we have been able to replace the roof on both Curie and Pankhurst buildings.  There was also some preliminary work done on Moles and the 6^th form roof. The insulation installed is a much higher quality than was there before thus keeping heat in during the winter and heat out in the summer.

We have successfully managed to slowly see our energy consumption come down in our larger buildings, Moles, Curie and Pankhurst through our Energy Display Certificates which is Government statutory obligation that we have to show in buildings which benchmarks performance indicative with buildings of a similar type.  All three buildings are now below, albeit fractionally, the typical level that they are expected to be.  We will continue to work towards making this gap lower.