100 delegates meet in Cornwall to discuss sustainable schools

Simon Brammer and Carla Jones travelled to Cornwall last Thursday for a conference on sustainable schools, organised by Ashden award-winner Gill Harper from St Columb Minor School and partly funded using Ashden Awards prize money. Carla Jones reports:

There were over 100 delegates representing schools throughout Cornwall for the conference ‘Developing Sustainable Schools in Cornwall’. It was also good to see representatives from past Ashden winners - Community Energy Plus and Solarcentury - among the exhibitors.

Rachel Delourme from Cornwall Learning introduced the opening speeches from Simon Brammer and Sharon Longden, Head of Cornwall Learning, which laid out the challenges and opportunities for schools (see the Ashden's learning resource for schools).

The explorer Anthony Jinman told us how achieved his dream of reaching the North Pole by the age of 29. Now, as founder of Education Through Expeditions, he reports on the dramatic climatic changes he sees in the polar regions through an interactive learning website.

Ben Margolis, acting director at 10:10, emphasised that real change won’t be driven by delegates at Copenhagen and Cancun, but will instead come from sustained engagement with local communities, starting with schools. It is at this grassroots level that people get a sense of agency and push for change.

The conference shared best practice in schools. We heard about the new pupil-led teaching approach at Ashley Primary School, the wide-ranging sustainability measures that have been introduced at St Columb Minor, and the fresh adventurous attitude to cooking at Penair School, where last week octopus risotto was on the menu.

Finally, we had a lot of interest in the next LESS CO2 programme that will support schools across the Southwest to reduce their carbon emissions.

(pic: Pupils taking wind speed readings at St Columb Minor School)

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On the road in Devon and Cornwall

Last week Simon, the manager of our UK support programme, spent several days visiting two past Ashden Award winners in Devon and Cornwall. These are just two examples from the Southwest of communities and enterprises tackling environmental and economic challenges with innovative and inspiring solutions. By identifying key areas of need and including their views and experiences into our current research, the aim of this visit was to ensure we continue to build a strong programme of support for our UK award winners.

Kensa Engineering was Simon’s first stop. Kensa Engineering, designs, manufactures, and tests heat pump systems for installation throughout the UK. Most are small-scale ground-source heat pumps (up to 32 kW), which are supplied in kit form so that they can be installed by non-specialist plumbers and builders. Set in an old tin mine, Simon had the chance to visit and view Kensa’s manufacturing process first hand. Kensa’s offices themselves, entirely heated by ground source heating, were an example of how old buildings can be retrofitted to use a more sustainable energy system. Cornwall has a high number of “hard to treat” properties that are either off the grid or have solid walls making them difficult to insulate and heat. Ground source heating has the potential to provide an alternative solution for some of these issues through providing locally sourced energy.

Simon’s second visit was to Community Energy Plus (CEP) . This organisation is tackling the financial challenges of inefficient energy usage. CEP runs the Home Health programme which provides free energy efficiency advice and efficiency measures to communities in deprived areas of Cornwall. This has significant and long-term impacts on households for whom over 10% of their income is spent on fuel, reducing both energy use and fuel poverty.

But this trip wasn’t without its challenges. A snow storm halfway through left Simon stranded for 6 hours through the night! After finally being rescued from a drift of snow Simon continued on his visits- what a trooper!

You can find out more about all of our winners by visiting our website.

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