blog action day: climate change

I realise that, in these days of public spending cuts, this might be a bit of a pipedream but I really believe that the UK Government should be investing money in making all schools carbon neutral within the next say ten years. At present, if our school is anything to go by, the “heating goes on” on some prescribed day – which usually coincides with the warmest day of Autumn (as it did this year!). There is very little control over temperature – which results in both incredibly hot and cold spots around the school – and levels of thermal insulation that are laughably poor. Here are just three examples: we have an absurd situation in one of the staff/disabled toilets where lights are turned on automatically (whether they’re required or not) as a person enters and this immediately triggers the biggest (and loudest) extract fan in the world into action; there was another loo where the fan operated 24/7 and it took several reminders from me (over a period of some weeks) before anything was done about it; similarly, the relatively new school canteen has a mechanical extract system which is not only incredibly noisy (conversation in some locations really is quite difficult!) but also the occupants feel as if they’re sitting in a fridge! Like an awful lot of schools I suspect, energy and waste seem to be given a very low priority (even though we’re signed up as an Eco-School!).
I know some rare schools already do this, but wouldn’t it make sense if every school monitored its use (and abuse) of energy? Wouldn’t it make sense to make use of the latest technology when it comes to energy? Wouldn’t it make a wonderful educational opportunity? Wouldn’t it be a great way to make young people aware of what might be possible in everyday life?