ISBA

Autumn 2021 | Environmental sustainability www.theisba.org.uk 12 We spoke to Ian Callender , chief operating officer at North London Collegiate School (NLCS), to find out how the whole school community worked to start to decarbonise their estate and bring climate change awareness into every lesson. Q. What actions has your school taken to work towards decarbonising the estate? Our immediate focus was to improve the insulation of our old buildings and fit double glazed windows, because without those first steps, any further investment in renewable energy would be wasted. We then retrofitted all our lighting with LED lights, switched to green energy suppliers, and replaced the boilers with more efficient models. Why and when did you begin the process? We began the process in 2015/16 by commissioning Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) surveys to provide a base line measure of our current energy use. We felt that we had a duty to our community and to future generations to take responsible actions in line with the targets set in the UK Climate Change Act. What were the reasons for the school’s specific initiatives? These were driven by a number of key objectives; we wanted to reduce our overall energy use by firstly, reducing waste (food, water, consumables) and increasing recycling. We also wanted to reduce emissions from air travel and transport (i.e. travel to and from school). It was important for us to source food responsibly and ensure that our menus minimise our carbon footprint and, as well as that, we felt that we needed to improve biodiversity on the school’s grounds and to eliminate the use of chemicals that have a detrimental effect on the environment. By doing all this, we have raised awareness of our duty to act in a sustainable manner and it has helped to educate our pupil, staff, parent and alumni body of the importance of making sustainable choices. Have pupils influenced the decision to start (or continue) a carbon reduction programme and what role have they played so far? Some pupils are working towards the Eco-Schools Green Flag Accreditation and we hold an environmental prize competition every year. We have a variety of pupil committees that champion sustainability issues in the school and pupil representatives also sit on our main environmental committee. Case study: Decarbonising the estate at North London Collegiate School