Teachers and pupils might be a bit more idealistic than old tech warriors, and might certainly have more ideas about how schools can contribute to a sustainable environment. We certainly need ideas.
Schools don't manufacture--that's usually one place that energy savings can be made. They're not occupied full time--expensive temperature control systems aren't probably needed. Indeed, one sustainability argument would be to make schools more of a multi-use facility, open after hours for other functions.
The biggest carbon footprint in education is getting pupils and staff into them (or at least that's what we thought--but see below! It isn't). The car-run and staff commutes are more often in cars than buses, and ever less frequently on foot. This could probably be changed, but the only innovative technology that could contribute--teleworking and telestudying--is already being embraced by policy makers.
This leads, as you've undoubtedly already guessed, only white paint. If the climate is warming, then dark coloured buildings absorb the rays of the sun and get hotter--pretty convenient in the North and in winter. But areas that get a lot of sun (yes, we know, but there are some), would reflect sunlight if they were painted a light colour and that would help. It would also help on roads and other paved areas... like playgrounds.
Sustainability is an important issue, and one that has already engaged teachers and pupils. They actually care. (Well, so do we.) So here's a call for help--how can technology increase sustainability in education facilities? How well does your school do? Take the test and see or calculate your schools carbon footprint here or here.
Erm, did we just write an entire post about sustainability without mentioning recycling? Pfft. Are there figures on how well schools do this and comparisons with other types of facilities?
Well, okay. Here's how UK schools fared in 2006, according to UK Schools Carbon Footprint, Scoping Study for Sustainable Development Commission by Global Action Plan, Stockholm Environment Institute, Eco-Logica Ltd, March 2006. (26% direct emissions, 22% electricity, 20% transport).
They write: "Carbon emissions associated with schools To-date studies that aim to assess the carbon emissions from schools have focussed on the direct carbon emissions using bottom-up data collected from school surveys. This approach neglects a considerable share of the carbon footprint arising from transport and procurement, which is important if the government wants to achieve a 60% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050.
These emissions can be accounted for by using a top down approach. Based on an input-output methodology UK schools are estimated to produce 9.245 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per annum. This is 1.32% of total UK emissions. Of this amount, secondary schools produce 4.374 million tonnes, primary schools 3.681 million tonnes and other schools 1.190 million tonnes. However, this still does not factor in the 1.164 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from the private use of cars for commuting to schools, which were derived in estimations using bottom-up data from the National Travel Survey as the input-output model does not allow account for these (see Appendix 1).
Figure 1 shows that 26% of the resulting 10.5 million tonnes of CO2 are direct emissions from the school estates and 22% from electricity used in schools as well in the industrial supply chain (for the production of goods and services used procured by schools). Commuting to schools caused another 14% of the total emissions, while other transport activities in the industrial supply chain contributed 6%."
Wonder how we're doing this year?
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