FEATURE FOCUS: SUSTAINABILITY
Reflections on net-zero in schools I
n our first look at sustainability in schools this month, we’re delighted to hear again from Nigel Aylwin-Foster of ReEnergise Projects Ltd, who picks up where he left off in his previous two articles on net-zero and school estate decarbonisation. Part 1 (December 2022) discussed definitions, the difference between net-zero carbon and net-zero energy, and postulated four scenarios for different types of school estates once they’d achieved net-zero carbon and aspects of net-zero energy. Part 2 (September 2023)
considered planning in more detail, focusing on the purpose and construct of the school estate decarbonisation plan (EDP).
In this article I’d like to consider what happens next, after the EDP. The purpose of the EDP is to determine a pragmatic, affordable programme of infrastructure projects that achieves the intended end state – the net-zero school estate. The diagram below indicates what this programme might look like.
Given that implementing the decarbonisation plan will entail significant capital outlay, at a time when funds are inevitably short, the trick will be to derive a programme of work that enables progress in the short term without jeopardising the long-term objective. Any short-term projects should be selected based on meeting two criteria: that they will be enablers for the longer-term projects and/or reduce operating costs. We can call this the Enabling Phase. It gives a school the opportunity to make a start on going green without needing to go into the red in the process. The Major Decarbonisation Phase is when most of the expensive, disruptive projects will occur, the most significant being the conversion of the school’s provision of heating and hot water from fossil fuel systems to low-carbon alternatives. There is deliberately no scale along the X or Y axes. The programme duration will depend on a range of factors, including when the existing heating plant reaches end-of-life, government-imposed deadlines for phasing out the purchase of new fossil fuel heating plant (currently 2035), and – not least – the school’s capacity to fund the work. The current trend in the independent sector is for a programme of about 20 years. The Y axis scale will, of course, depend on the size of the school estate: small independent schools might be facing a total capex in the order of £2M or £3M to become net-zero carbon; for the largest schools in the UK it will be some £20-30M, or even more if the school also wants to become as energy self-sufficient as commercial good sense and the school’s real estate allow. In short, becoming net-zero is rather a big deal, and it merits a comprehensive plan. So what next, once armed with this game-changing plan? First, note that the EDP is part of a broader step-by-step risk-reduction process. Engineering and commercial logic suggests 5 steps, as shown below:
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www.education-today.co.uk
December 2023
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