Energy Use

At Eco Club today 30 of us piled into room 3 to listen to Mr. Cox and Mr. Heighton tell us about how much energy we waste in our new school building. Mr. Heighton showed us an electricity meter that measures how much an appliance uses (see below). He plugged a computer in as a demonstration. We found out that even if a computer is switched off, if the plug is on at the mains it still pulls power. We worked out that if all the computers were left in this state then it costs the school nearly £10 a day (thats about £3500 a year). If the computers are left on but not used it costs £80 a day! Not only can we save a lot of money but also a lot of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) being released. Remember that CO2 is a “Greenhouse” gas that contributes to Global Warming.

We have decided to do something about it and most of the Eco Clubbers have volunteered to help turn appliances off at the end and during the day. Mr. Cox will also investigate whether the building management system can shut down power centrally. Our main aim is to cut the electricity use of the school as much as possible and this will start by monitoring our use more carefully.

 

Lets Save Energy!

6.00pm Wednesday 27th February to 6.00pm on the 28th February is Energy Saving Day when we are all being invited to take part in an experiment to cut down on our electricity use. Find out how we are doing on the energy saving day website. At the time of writing we were not doing so well and using 1% more energy than usual. Lets hope we can do better at school!

The Eco Action Team met again today. Among the many things on the agenda was the issue of Energy Saving which is a new addition to our Action Plan. This Friday Eco Club will be having a special meeting on this topic. Mr. Heighton has been measuring the amount of energy used by various things around the building and Mr. Cox will present some of the key issues.

Also joining us today was Penny from Leicestershire County Council. she told us about plans for a Waste Education Pack and the Action team were able to give her their opinions about how waste management should be taught.

Bushloe Forest

We planted three more trees today in Eco Club, our school grounds will end up as Bushloe Forest if we keep this up! These trees were three Birch trees and they came from Brocks Hill Environment Park tree nursery. We are now looking forward to our free pack of Woodland Trust hedgerow plants due next week, they will go in alongside the pond (with a bit of help from Eco Club of course). We are now ready to apply for our first Green Flag award today. Following a meeting of the Eco Action Team we are sending our application in on Monday. This will mark the first staging post in a jouney that has taken two years so far. The Action Team will be meeting again next Wednesday when we will be joined by Penny from Leicestershire Council and Mrs. Gilroy representing the Governors. We will discuss waste management education with Penny as well as spending some time on the new Action Plan.

Update

Ok, so no posts here for the past couple of weeks but that doesn’t mean nothing has been happening. In fact things have been really busy. In Eco Club we have been thinking about the sorts of species that we are trying to attract to our school grounds and writing “spotters guides” so we will know what we are looking at when we see it. Eco Club have also been very busy with the recycling and composting rotas.

Last week also saw an exciting new development as we planted another 6 trees, this time Oaks, at the back of the school (see above). Each Oak stands at over 2m tall and they have been generously donated to the school. In time these trees will provide shelter to our school as well as creating a diverse and rich habitat.

The same week also saw the fifth meeting of our Eco Action Team. It was a useful meeting at which the new Action Plan was discussed. Future plans include extending recycling and looking at energy use in our building. It was also decided to make our application for our first Eco Schools Green Flag Award, this will be discussed fully at our next (sixth) meeting.

It seems a good time to reflect on our progress so far. After a great start in 2006, last year was a quiet one for Eco Club as we settled into our new building. It was also frustrating for us all to see the destruction of the old Eco Area with the old building and then be able to do so little towards replacing it. We were able to plan though and since September we have made huge progress with more to come over the coming months. So far we have established a paper recycling system and have begun composting while outside we have planted bulbs, twelve trees and several shrubs. We have built birdfeeders and raised the profile of environmental issues across the school. Still to come is our allotment area which is due to be built next month and plans for the new pond to be cleaned out and planted with native species. We are also hoping for funds for nest boxes and to establish an area of wildflower meadowland. Inside the building Staff continue to introduce more plants to “green up” our school while work is being done on an ethical purchasing policy. It is all excellent progress but demands more effort than ever from us all to keep it going. A huge well done to all of you who have been involved in these schemes, we are already seeing the results!