Memorandum submitted by the Sustainable
Development Commission (SDC)
The Education and Skills Committee's report
Sustainable Schools: are we building schools for the future?
aimed to assist in maximising the effect of the Building Schools
for the Future (BSF) programme on improving the quality and sustainability
of the environments for learning in this country. The Children,
Schools and Families Committee is now seeking written evidence
on progress in the Building Schools for the Future project and
initiatives to make schools more sustainable.
The SDC is the Government's independent advisory
body on sustainable development, reporting to the Prime Minister
and the First Ministers of Scotland and Wales. Through advocacy,
advice and appraisal, we help put sustainable development at the
core of Government policy. The 2005 UK Government Sustainable
Development Strategy, Securing the Future, also charges the SDC
with the role of "watchdog" for sustainable development.
Since the Education and Skills Committee's report
Sustainable Schools: are we building schools for the future?
the SDC believes that there have been some positive developments
within the Department for Children, Schools and Families relating
to schools capital and the BSF programme on carbon emissions,
but there is still a need for significant progress on wider sustainability.
The SDC agrees with the Committee's recommendation
that DCSF and Partnerships for Schools should develop as a priority
a knowledge management and learning strategy to support authorities,
schools, contractors, suppliers and others involved in BSF to
share best practice and learning as the programme develops—however
the Department is still not systematically gathering evidence
of the sustainability performance (specifically the actual carbon
performance) of recently completed schools. Learning lessons from
the early waves of BSF is vital to pushing up standards through
the programme. The SDC recommends that DCSF commits to reviewing
the actual sustainability performance of completed schools in
the first waves of BSF in order to inform future waves.
The Committee asked the DCSF to set out its
plans for improved ICT procurement within BSF. In our recent work
on carbon emissions from the school estate, we found that emissions
from electricity consumption in schools are on a strong upward
trend, partly driven by the increase in use of ICT in schools.
The SDC recommends that DCSF ensures that BSF drives procurement
of efficient, low carbon ICT solutions which serve to reduce energy
consumption in schools, not increase it.
The Committee's report notes the importance
of the "visioning" phase. The SDC agrees with this and
is concerned that the BSF procurement process does not require
local authorities to develop the strategy for change in line with
the "eight doorways" of the DCSF's National Framework
for Sustainable Schools, despite evidence given to the contrary.[3]
The SDC believes that a vision should be developed at the start
of each BSF procurement wave based on the sustainable development
outcomes that schools and their communities are aiming to achieve.
SDC recommends that the BSF guidance is adapted further to make
a more explicit and central link between BSF and sustainable development,
linked to the requirement for local authorities to develop Sustainable
Community Strategies under the new local government performance
framework.
The SDC believes that the Primary Capital Programme
must learn lessons from the BSF programme and aim to meet or exceed
the sustainability outcomes of BSF. However the Department appears
to have less control over the Primary Capital Programme due to
a more "arms-length" management of the procurement programme.
The SDC recommends that the Department clarifies the sustainability
outcomes it aims to achieve, and reviews how it will deliver sustainable
schools through this programme.
The SDC is concerned that the Children's Centres
capital programme is not meeting the sustainability outcomes required
by a major government-funded capital investment programme. Although
Children's Centre funding comes entirely from DCSF, we understand
that the Common Minimum Standards[4]
(CMS) which should apply, have not been applied, and the requirement
to meet BREEAM "excellent" or equivalent has not been
delivered to date. Phase 3 of the Children's Centre programme
is about to start, to deliver the final 600 centres of a total
target of 3,500 centres by 2010. It does not seem that the programme
will be altered for Phase 3 to raise sustainability standards,
as DCSF has a strategically detached role from the delivery process.
The SDC recommends that DCSF urgently reviews the sustainability
standards achieved so far in the Children's Centres programme
and the standards to be achieved through Phase 3 with the aim
of meeting or exceeding the standards delivered through BSF.
The Committee asked the DCSF and Partnerships
for Schools to report how the recommendations of the Sustainable
Procurement Task Force are being implemented in BSF. The SDC is
concerned that schools are still not being procured on a true
whole life value basis within the BSF programme, and believe that
the procurement process does not incentivise fully sustainable
schools. The value of the benefits of sustainable schools should
be assessed and accounted for within the BSF programme (eg safe
walking and cycling routes, green and natural spaces for play
and relaxation, community learning). The SDC recommends that the
procurement process should be modified to incentivise high sustainability
performance—fully aligned with the Government's Sustainable
Schools Strategy.
The Committee noted that the Government must
address the issue of schools' carbon emissions. Since the publication
of the Committee's report, the SDC has been working intensively
with the DCSF to raise the Department's awareness of the emissions
footprint from the schools estate, explore the changes required
to reduce the carbon footprint by 60% and 80% by 2050, and recommend
actions and policy interventions for the DCSF and others to implement
or influence in order to deliver these emissions reductions. We
found that emissions can be reduced by 80% by 2050 through a comprehensive
package of policies and interventions tackling emissions from
buildings energy use, travel and transport, procurement and waste.
Our advice was presented to the Department in March 2008, and
a summary of this will be published on our website[5]
in July 2008. We recommended that the Department develop a strategy
to reduce emissions by 80% by 2050 with strong early action to
halve emissions by 2020, with specific implications for the Department's
capital programmes.[6]
The Department has committed to develop a strategy and is currently
reviewing the feasibility of our recommendations.[7]
The Committee recommended that there should
be a post-occupancy review of every school within the programme.
The SDC's research has found that the mechanisms to deliver and
assure sustainability within the BSF programme are not sufficient,
and recommend that BREEAM for Schools is updated to set minimum
performance criteria for key sustainability elements, and to include
a thorough Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) review for each completed
school.
The SDC broadly welcomes the DCSF proposals[8]
to better link BSF investment to regeneration and new communities
and the potential of this proposal to bring wider benefits to
communities from the investment in school assets. We recommend
that DCSF and Partnerships for Schools work closely with the Department
for Communities and Local Government and its new Homes and Communities
Agency to implement this proposal. We believe this will enhance
the potential to proactively develop community energy networks
within the BSF programme as an innovative method of carbon reduction
in schools (and the wider community). We also believe the DCSF
and DfT should jointly ensure that new schools are provided with
excellent quality cycle and walking routes and are situated in
places which minimise the need for vehicle usage.
The SDC is very encouraged by the Department's
ambition to deliver zero carbon schools from 2016 and is a member
of the Zero Carbon Schools Task Force. The SDC's work on the carbon
footprint of the schools estate underlines the importance of radically
reducing emissions from new schools within the timescale of the
BSF programme, but also of setting stringent standards for carbon
emissions of refurbished schools too, and welcomes the extension
of the Task Force's remit to advise on carbon standards for refurbished
schools.
July 2008
3 Sally Brooks response to Q716 in oral evidence session
6 December 2006. Ev 198 Education and Skills Committee: Evidence. Back
4
CMS have been in force since January 2006, and are managed by
OGC. They were agreed by ministers, including DCSF ministers,
at the time. OGC describe the CMS as for departments to "cascade
down to others who they fund". Back
5
www.sd-commission.org.uk Back
6
Recommendations to DCSF include: zero carbon new schools by 2016,
establish higher carbon performance standards for schools refurbished
in capital programmes, new extensive programme of renewable energy
retrofit to school buildings, more efficient ICT equipment, consider
school location and provision of safe routes to school to maximise
walking and cycling, and provision of facilities on school grounds
to enable walking and cycling. Back
7
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2008_0113 Back
8
DCSF, 2008, The management of Building Schools for the Future
waves 7 to 15. Consultation. Back
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