A competition which was designed to help primary school pupils make a real difference to their schools and the energy they use came to an end this month with an award ceremony which honoured all participating schools, including those that had made the biggest difference to their energy consumption.
Powercor partnered with STEM charity SATRO (https://www.satro.org.uk/) in the Energy Saving Challenge 2022, which encouraged and enabled primary school children to make a real difference to their school’s energy efficiency.
The awards event, held at the University of Surrey, gave the opportunity for 11 Primary schools from Surrey and Hampshire to be recognised for, amongst other award categories, the amount of electricity they have been able to save.
Each school that took part in the challenge had a specialist energy measuring meter installed by Powercor. They were then visited by a member of the SATRO team who discussed energy saving and sustainability with the entire school. SATRO met with the school’s Eco-group which was made up from pupils. The groups were charged with coming up with the ideas as to how they could help their headteacher save on the school’s electricity bills, and in doing so cut carbon emissions.
The meters were monitored to create a record of the amount of energy, and with it carbon, each school has saved.
SATRO’s Carl Webb explained: “The enthusiasm from the members of each Eco-group was clear to see. The results have also been hugely impressive with 10 tons of carbon saved across the schools in the space of the four months that the competition operated.”
He added the schools all had different electricity needs and levels of sustainability.
“One of the schools which took part in the competition is extremely new. It has only been operating for 18 months and had been constructed with sustainability in mind,” he added.
“The school did not cut their energy bills to the scale of the others, but their efforts were still hugely impressive given the energy efficiency the school already had in place. It highlighted that despite the best efforts there is always the ability to improve performance.”
Anne Edward, SATRO Managing Director, added: “Each school grabbed the opportunity to use their own real-life data and see the impact of behaviour changes on the amount of electricity they used. Not only did the students learn about the importance of saving energy but school leaders have had the opportunity so see the cost savings.”
Chris Wright, Powercor’s Technical Director, said the company was delighted to support the competition.
“For Powercor, the challenge goes beyond the desire to encourage schools to look at their energy efficiency,” he explained. “We’ve built a reputation for helping our clients, many of which are in the education sector, to reduce their energy bills. At a time when energy prices continue to rise, we were keen to get pupils thinking about sustainability and the attraction and rewards that STEM subjects can deliver.
“Working with SATRO on the Energy Saving Challenge 2022, has highlighted the benefits of engaging primary school pupils in the need to reduce emissions and enhance energy efficiencies.”
Overall results
The schools did a fantastic job with the overall the results for the competition shown in the table and graph below:
Total Carbon Emissions for all 11 schools 58.81 tonnes
Average per person 13.26 kg
Total Carbon Savings for all 11 schools 10.54 tonnes
Average per person 2.4 kg
The winning schools were:
1st – Godalming Junior School
2nd – Mytchett Primary & Nursery Academy
3rd – Worplesdon Primary School
Other Awards
Interim Report – Mytchett Primary & Nursery Academy
Final report – Holly Lodge Primary Academy
School Communication – Hatchlands Primary School
Planning for the Future – Godalming Junior School
Innovation – Holly Lodge Primary Academy
Carbon Saved, Weekends – Mytchett Primary & Nursery Academy
Carbon Saved, Holidays – Holy Trinity Pewley Down School
EcoDriver – Hatchlands Primary School
Community Engagement – Holly Lodge Primary Academy
“Our hope has been that the pupils do not just look at the school to see where energy savings can be made,” added Carl Webb. “We really hope that the pupils will take those lessons back to their homes too. As a charity we rely on external funding to be able to deliver our services and support. Without Powercor we would not have been able to organise the Energy Saving Challenge 2022, and so many pupils would have missed the opportunity to take part.”
