Emissions Areas

Results from 2020/21

Building on the first carbon audit report, staff and students collated an even more comprehensive set of data to produce a report on the carbon footprint of the whole Foundation. The carbon footprint included Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions (see diagram below for more information on what this means), so that the report met the UN standards for reporting of emissions at the Gold standard!

As a total footprint we found that in 2020/21 the school produced an estimated 1.13 tCO2e per pupil per year. This was a 13% reduction in comparison to the last report, despite including a greater range of data. It is important to note however that 2020/21 was again affected greatly by covid (including a significant time when the school was shut), therefore although it is great to see such a big reduction in emissions, we need to be cautious about celebrating the size of the reductions.

The report included several useful recommendations to aid further reductions, in particular;

1) Carrying out a review of the major suppliers that the Foundation uses and to begin engaging with the bigger emitters on what they are doing to be more sustainable.

2) Move to 100% renewable energy providers (which the 6th form are hard at work to put into action at the moment).

3) Continue to promote sustainable travel to and from school by the school's community.

After next year's report, we hope to be able to have a covid unaffected year which we can then set long term reduction targets. We will be using the UN's recommended reduction targets of 7.6% per year and look forward to sharing these targets next year!

Results from 2019/20

Despite being disrupted by COVID, staff and students were able to collate sufficient data to produce a report on the carbon footprint of the whole Foundation. The carbon footprint included Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions (see diagram below for more information on what this means), so that the report met the UN standards for reporting of emissions.

As a total footprint we found that in 2019/20 the school produced an estimated 1.33 tCO2e per pupil per year. This number seems like a lot and it is useful to put it in context so that we can make sense of it: The UK’s per-capita CO2 emissions in 2019 was 5.3tCO2, therefore it seems as if we are relatively inline with what the rest of the country has as a carbon footprint. Clearly this is not sustainable to be producing this much Carbon Dioxide each year and therefore we are going to use this number as a target to bring down with all of our actions as a society and as a school.

In the report we identified that our biggest emission areas were Energy and Transport (equating to almost 3/4 of our footprint!) therefore we are going to really target these areas in the coming years. A few of the ideas we are going to pursue are reducing the energy we use by making the buildings more efficient, switching off electrical supplies when no one is using the school site and also we are going to put together a proposal for solar panels.

The report did also identify that the recycling work that the Lower Remove have been focussing on has made a big difference to our emissions in this sector. Waste disposal was a fraction of our overall emission footprint and the report said that this was mainly due to the high rates of recycling (75% of all waste is recycled) and that no waste goes to landfill. Well done Lower Remove - now we have to keep it there!

Next report

For More Information About Last Years Results contact enviroment@ucs.org.uk or james.firth@ucs.org.uk