Let’s Go Zero school action: Bellevue Place Education Trust, England
Bellevue Place Education Trust is a Trust of nine primary schools that are situated in both urban and rural areas across London and Berkshire. As a Trust, they have set themselves the target of becoming net-zero by 2030 and are taking steps to reach this goal.
They have made the active decision to change energy supplier to 100% green energy even with the slight increase in cost.
All the schools in their Trust take part in Meat Free Mondays.
A new environmental sustainability policy for any new contracts or suppliers.
Encouraging all schools to have an active travel plan.
Explore the Let’s Go Zero map to see where else teachers, students and school communities are taking action to become zero carbon by 2030.
The teachers and students leading the action:
“With some of the things we’ve done – we’ve had to invest to save. There is a danger out there that trusts don’t optimise the buying power of the education. We need more collaboration between us trusts.”
Richard Crompton Director of Operations
What are they doing in their school?
This area is always very schools specific due to location and geography, however the Trust is encouraging all their schools to create school travel plans to monitor progress.
Whitehall Park, which is based in London, has done a lot of work on active and sustainable travel. Working with the council and a committed group of parents they had the parking bays outside the school removed and school streets installed. They have also run some anti idling workshops with parents and secured some funding for a green wall.
Deer Park School also based in London, has been awarded Gold Accreditation by TfL because of their sustainable travel plans for the second time in a row.
Evendons Primary School, Wokingham is the first in the borough and only the eighth in the country to be awarded the highest possible status of platinum in the national Modeshift STARS scheme.
All schools within the Trust take part in Meat Free Mondays. They have a school food policy and have designed the menus appropriately. This has given the Trust the opportunity to educate parents around what they are trying to achieve with the menus and Meat Free Mondays.
The Trusts energy supplier is now 100% green energy across all their schools, and they have installed smart metering in all schools allowing them to identify behavioural patterns even at classroom level.
By using these smart meters, they found that one the schools lifts was being overused, costing the Trust an extra £3000 every year. By actively encouraging staff to take the stairs and keeping the lift free for those who really need it, the trust not only is more inclusive, but also saves energy and money.
After signing the Let’s Go Zero Campaign, Bellevue Place Education Trust partnered with eEnergy to reduce their carbon footprint and work towards their net zero goal by 2030. eEnergy provided comprehensive energy efficiency solutions, including LED lighting and solar PV installations.
Procurement is driven centrally to maximise buying potential and a new environmental sustainability policy for any new contracts or suppliers has been created. Any organisation that bids for one of their tenders needs to prove the environmental sustainability of the organization within the tender process.