25 July 2008
Doubts over sustainable school design were raised this week, after it was revealed that energy use in state schools would be included in the Carbon Reduction Commitment emissions trading scheme.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs announced that schools would be included in the calculation of town hall energy use on July 16. This will greatly expand the number of councils expected to enter the mandatory CRC cap-and-trade scheme in April 2010.
Andy Johnston, head of the Local Government Information Unit's centre for local sustainability, told Public Finance that 'practically every' upper-tier local authority would now come under the CRC, compared with previous estimates of only half being included.
'Councils can't tell schools what to do; the challenge is more to do with management. I think local authorities are going to have to influence carbon reduction in schools,' said Johnston.
All unitary, county and metropolitan councils and London boroughs that have an annual electricity bill of about £500,000 a year will be covered by the cap-and-trade scheme. It gives a financial incentive for private and public sector organisations to reduce carbon emissions by allowing them to buy and sell allowances.
On July 21, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment called for a design threshold to be established for new and renovated schools under the Building Schools for the Future programme, to drive up the quality of school design.
Richard Simmons, chief executive of Cabe, which runs a design panel for the BSF programme, said: 'What we need is a design threshold which will prevent bad schemes from continuing through the system. This would provide a very clear signal that good design is a core requirement of BSF, not an optional extra.'
Cabe said very few buildings in the scheme were driven by sustainability, with few making the most of natural light, or designed to be adaptable to changing technology.
Giving evidence to the Commons children, schools and families select committee on July 14, Simmons said only seven out of 700 projects seen by the review panel in the past two years had a proper sustainability strategy.
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