A primary school in a village near Bath has been selected to take part in an £18.6 million decarbonisation project, led by the Department for Education.
Peasedown St John Primary School is one of seven schools in the country taking part in the pilot, which will see them benefit from new low-carbon heating solutions, as well as improvements to the buildings fabric to make the school more thermal efficient.
The works at the primary school, estimated to cost around £3.4 million, have been procured through national Fusion21 frameworks.
Energy bills and carbon emissions in the public and higher education sectors show that schools and universities represent 36% of total UK public sector building emissions.
Works to reduce carbon emissions to make schools selected as part of the pilot significantly more energy efficient has now got underway.
Where necessary, the schools’ building fabric will be improved with upgrades ranging from new electrics, roofs and ceilings to new doors and windows amid a government drive to make educational buildings greener.
Contractors were appointed via Fusion21’s Decarbonisation and Heating & Renewables frameworks, which ensure housing, local authority, education, blue light and health sectors maximise social value in contracts.
Oliver Mooney, Head of Category at Fusion21 said: “It is fantastic to have been involved in such an important Department for Education project and to support the schools who used our framework to appoint the contractors for these transformational, multi-million-pound improvement works which will vastly improve the buildings, bring huge energy savings and carbon emission reductions and ensure pupils, teachers and parents are playing an important role in decarbonisation and Net Zero ambitions”.
The pilot will provide an opportunity to learn more about alternative greener heating solutions and to use the findings to consider how this can be scaled up to accelerate decarbonisation in the future.