CASE STUDY
campaign to encourage energy-saving behaviour change by pupils and teachers, using assemblies, posters and other strategies to make everyone aware of what they can do. In some schools, pupils from younger year groups have been recruited to carry out daily surveys of lighting, electrical appliances and heating to see how well the behaviour change work is progressing.
As SEMT members move up to higher year groups, new pupils are recruited to the team. The team may reduce in size, as only the survey stage requires a large number of members, but it is an important part of the YEP! approach that the SEMT becomes a long-term feature of the school. Staff from SWEA help the SEMT throughout the schools.
How much does it cost and how do users pay? By March 2011, YEP! had completed three phases of work, working with up to 15 schools in each phase. Phase 1 cost about £10,000 per school, including both development of the programme and delivery, and the delivery of phases 2 and 3 cost about £6,000 per school. In these first three phases the cost of YEP! was covered by Gloucestershire county council and EU funds from the ‘Intelligent Energy Europe’ programme, and schools did not pay. The council was able to justify its contribution because the carbon savings made will reduce its liability for CRC payments.
In the upcoming phase 4 the council is looking to split the cost with the school, in line with changes to the CRC that now allow councils to pass costs on through the central schools budget. From the experience to date, and at current energy costs, the savings in energy bills achieved by a school will cover its share of the cost in less than two years.
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Environmental benefits Phase 1 YEP! schools achieved an average 32 tonnes/ year CO2, or 12%, reduction per school in their first year, partly through changes to their buildings but also due to behaviour change of staff and pupils. Because the energy use of the school is tracked in the YEP! energy diary, progress in reducing energy consumption at the schools is closely monitored, and any anomalies can be quickly identified and investigated. In addition to the reductions in CO2 emissions at the schools, there have also been reductions due to pupils taking the energy saving message home, though these have not been quantified. The level of detail in the school energy survey, and the professional quality of its production, means that the school retains a useful long-term resource to guide future reductions in energy use.
Economic and employment benefits YEP! schools have saved an average £5,500/year per school on energy bills so far, freeing up money to be used for other purposes. During phase 1 of YEP!, some of the SEMT pupils also went on work placements in businesses where SWEA staff arranged for them to carry out an energy survey and prepare a similar report for the business to the one they produced for the school. As a result of this, the businesses have been able to make energy and cost savings through technical and behavioural changes. Within SWEA, the YEP! programme has provided two extra jobs, strengthening their education team and increasing their capacity to work on similar projects in future.
Future plans
SWEA is planning to replicate YEP! across the UK, working with other county councils and partner agencies to deliver the programme.
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