Greening Education

9th Jun 2014 09:52

Iain Patton, EAUC's CEO, is speaking at this event.

The eminent Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai once famously said “we have a responsibility to protect the rights of generations, of all species, that cannot speak for themselves today.” For many the quote epitomises the imperative to tackle climate change and environmental degradation caused by the consumption of our modern lives. The passage also, however, implicitly suggests there is requirement to set a better example to the next generation. There is no better instrument through which to lead by example than the part of the establishment our young people have most contact with - education.

Govtoday is pleased to announce Greening Education 2014 in association with the Carbon Trust. The event, now in its fourth year, will be hosted at the City of London’s prestigious Mermaid Conference Centre on 9th June. The conference will discuss exactly how leaders within the education sector can set a sufficiently sustainable precedent for the young people they teach to follow. The conference has two core themes.

Firstly, sustainable development in the education sector will be explored. How can schools, academies, FE colleges and universities minimise the environmental detriment of their crucial activities? The conference will look at the initiatives institutional leaders can put in place to reduce the carbon footprint of their estates, improve the resource efficiency of their organisations and boost their ecological credentials.

In terms of energy use in the education sector alone, the potential for improvement is massive. Our event partners, the Carbon Trust have calculated that UK schools could reduce energy costs by around £44 million per year which would prevent 625,000 tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere. These savings can be achieved without detriment to the teaching environment but through the adoption of often simple solutions. Greening Education 2014 will consider these measures along with resource efficiency, dealing with waste, greening the supply chain and travel planning.  

A key way that education leaders must demonstrate sustainable development principles is in their management of capital programmes. The Priority School Building programme (PSBP) is a centrally-managed scheme set up to address the needs of the schools most in need of urgent repair. Through the PSBP, 261 schools will be rebuilt or have their needs met. The first school will be completed this year. Five batches, containing 46 schools, will be delivered via PF2, the government’s new approach to private finance with the remaining schools being delivered via ordinary public works capital funding. All schools within the programme will be delivered by the end of 2017. A further funding allocation of 1.3 billion has been made to ensure energy efficiency measures are tied up within the scheme to build a sustainable future from a carbon perspective and financial.

Secondly, and subtly different, the conference will also consider education for sustainable development. What can educational institutions do using their influence on young people to produce a generation of environmentally conscious citizens? Our plenary sessions will consider policy and existing best practice around sustainability on the curricula, but also around ‘building-in’ sustainable behaviours to nudge students into greener lifestyles.

Click here for full details View this event on the EAUC website →