Sustainability in Education

The Department for Education (DfE) has set targets of reducing the emissions produced by the education estate by three-quarters by 2037 and achieving net zero by 2050; however the most recent estimates are that 80% of the existing education estate won’t be net-zero by this date and as the education estate represents 37% of the UK public sector building emissions, there is clearly a lot of work that needs doing retrofitting existing buildings to reach this target.

The Government had stated that it would publish a detailed roadmap in Autumn 2024 detailing how DfE goals would be met after admitting that its school rebuilding programme wouldn’t be sufficient in making the education estate net zero. However, as will become evident, given the scale of the task, there are concerns over both the amount of funding available and how it will be allocated: it is estimated that it will cost £2 billion per annum to retrofit existing schools in time for the 2050 deadline.

LocatED, the government’s education property experts, have launched the Net Zero Accelerator scheme to help facilitate the rapid rollout of decarbonisation initiatives across the education estate by funding and providing specialist teams who will help e.g. councils and academy trusts assess the condition of their buildings and advise on and oversee the implementation of initiatives to reduce running costs and achieve net zero targets. This scheme is currently in the Pathfinder stage (Phase 2) and applications to be part of the two batches of 25 schools which will be the first to be decarbonised have just closed (on 17th June) Any future stages will depend on the outcome of this phase.

The scale of the challenge becomes evident, when looking for example at lighting retrofitting works which need carrying out. Research has found that around 70% of UK schools are still using outdated lighting and it is estimated that Britain’s 29,000 schools will need up to £5.4 billion, equivalent to 5% of all government spending on education last year, invested in lighting upgrades and solar power generation alone if net-zero targets are to be achieved. By switching to LED devices schools can reduce lighting bills by over 90%, saving roughly £2.3 billion over 10 years.

Whilst an increasing number of schools are using solar panels to generate their own energy there are estimates that around 30% of all energy generated is wasted during school holidays or weekends;  the installation of batteries to store energy is needed to help resolve this. Suitable batteries are becoming cheaper, but this represents another expense for schools.

The Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) has awarded 34 Academy Trusts a share of £37 million to be spent on projects such as installation of heat pumps, solar panels, insulation, and low-energy lighting. Launched in 2020 £2.5 billion has already been provided via the PSDS and funding provided for over 1000 public sector projects, including Council projects which may include school improvements. The Government has announced that phase 4 of the scheme will take a new approach placing additional emphasis on projects where the most-direct carbon emissions will be saved. Guidance for this Phase is due to be published soon.

Additionally, over £30 million worth of funding has been awarded through the Government’s Heat Network Efficiency Scheme (HNES) to upgrade heating networks in a number of private and public-sector organisations, including a number of educational institutions.

Whilst schemes such as the PSDS can help schools upgrade and invest in clean energy technology, bidders greatly outnumber the number of recipients and schools are having to compete with other public premises such as those managed by the NHS or Councils. In fact, only 21% of the monies handed out over the last two phases of the scheme went to schools. Additionally smaller organisations and academies have struggled to put successful bids together: analysis has found that successful academy trusts had on average 22 schools, whilst the average sized trust has 7 academies. Officials have recognised the challenges faced by smaller schools or single academy trusts and are working to address these issues in the next phase of funding.

Cuts in school funding since 2014 have made it unrealistic for schools to fund projects to help the transition to net-zero, the lack of available capital combined with increasing running costs have further depleted schools’ budgets. Given that 38% of the education estate is beyond its initial design life, it will be difficult to achieve environmentally friendly estates when many buildings are old and dilapidated with emergency repairs  taking precedence over routine maintenance and retrofitting.

The surge in energy costs has forced many schools to improve efficiency themselves despite the lack of funding. Larger trusts are spending their own money to fund the necessary changes, often millions of pounds drawn from existing reserves and capital grants to pay for the installation of solar panels and LED lights. However smaller trusts and schools are struggling to do the same and some are seeking alternative methods of increasing efficiency such as signing long-term contracts for the free installation of solar panels to then buy back the electricity generated at a lower-than-market rate fee. Councils are also getting involved replacing old equipment in schools from their maintenance budget;  Kent Council for example has purchased a solar farm to make cheaper, greener energy available to schools and other public buildings.

Research has discovered that two thirds of architects are now calculating the environmental impact of building projects more than ever before by assessing the energy demands of a project, the CO2 emitted during construction, the lifecycle of building products and choosing environmentally friendly products. Whilst more and more new buildings are being constructed to what is known as Passivhaus sustainability standards, making them highly energy efficient and net zero carbon, this does not help with retrofitting existing school buildings which is a much more considerable challenge that will need resolving to achieve net zero.

Increasing sustainability has clear benefits for schools beyond simply environmental considerations. Reducing energy bills will lighten this burden on schools, although funding assistance with the initial capital expenditure is clearly needed. There is a lot of focus on increasing the sustainability of the education estate,  but given the scale of the problem and the ambitious targets set by the Government, plenty more still needs doing. Many are hoping that once more guidance is available clear advice and assistance can be given to schools to help them achieve net zero targets.