New DfE guidance on maximising energy efficiency

The Department for Education has published new guidance to support schools to maximise energy efficiency, reduce carbon emissions and improve sustainability and resilience.

The guidance is for building users, premises managers and senior leadership teams in schools and colleges.

It shows them how they can reduce their energy, costs and carbon use by understanding energy usage and conducting an audit to target where they can save energy.

It also shows how to develop a plan using information from their energy audit to encourage good practices, behaviours and further interventions, as well as how to implement and manage the proposed interventions to reduce energy consumption.

This comes as the DfE has announced that schools and colleges in England will be allocated a share of £500 million to spend on energy efficiency upgrades, helping to save on bills during the winter months and manage energy consumption.

Improvements could include installing better heating controls, insulation to reduce heat loss from pipes or switching to energy efficient lighting.