North Yorkshire Energy & Sustainability Service's story
We work with pupils and teachers on Eco Schools, attending events around climate change and sustainability issues. This is alongside working with site managers, bursars and headteachers around bill monitoring, delivering Display Energy Certificates and efficiency advice. Altogether this ensures a whole school approach to energy and carbon reduction and cost savings.
We also bid for funding on behalf of schools, e.g. recent government decarbonisation funding for window and door upgrades for our schools to ensure school buildings are energy efficient.
We continually strive to support schools with responding to the changing energy market, to remove the stress for them by working along with other local authorities to purchase energy for them to ensure the best price.
Useful learnings from North Yorkshire Energy & Sustainability Service
Keep the messages clear and simple. Ours from the start have been 'A whole school approach' and 'Helping schools pay the best price for their energy and water, to only pay for what they use and to use as little as possible.'
Our whole school approach working with school business managers, head teachers, building managers, teachers and pupils to help them be as efficient as possible. We are unique because we combine the traditional energy management advice and guidance with working with teachers to help them educate the next generation about climate change and other sustainability issues, this at a time when it did/does not feature in the national curriculum for primary schools. (http://nyorks-eco.education)
Know your audience, what are their motivations, interests and challenges. Go to them physically and emotionally where they are.
Use the resources that are out there; for us it's Eco Schools, Carbon Trust, use of numerous environmental and teaching practitioner partnerships, networks and resources.
Work in partnership, true partnership where every member brings something to and takes something from the table. This has helped to promote issues, diversify our service, help others deliver their messages and keep delivery costs down.
North Yorkshire Energy & Sustainability Service's metrics
Percentage of North Yorkshire schools that use the service (over 80%).
Amount of energy usage.
Number of schoolchildren participating.
