Set up an Energy or Eco team to lead on energy efficiency at your school

Belvedere Academy, Thursday, 01 September 2022
20 Change-maker KS1, KS2, KS3, KS4

What you did

Our Academy Eco warriors!

We gained Bronze accreditation for the Global Educcate award and were awarded an Eco-Schools Green Flag. 

We’ve had projects aimed to raise awareness about waste issues associated with the UK fashion industry and focused on preventing clothes from going into landfill by promoting the re-use of old clothes.  1 in 3 items in the average UK wardrobe has not been worn for over a year and an estimated £140M worth of clothing (350,000 tonnes, or the same weight as 21,777 buses) goes into landfill each year which can take up to 40 years to biodegrade. To help to address these environmental issues, Belvedere had a thrifting event where students and staff exchanged previously loved and unwanted clothes. Student’s brought in their clothes which were sorted and displayed by our eco-warriors. Over 20 bin bags of clothes found loving new homes! We also had a festive wear swap; students and staff brought in Christmas jumpers that they no longer wear.  These jumpers were swapped, or donated. Pre-loved uniforms are available for students who have grown out of their uniform, please continue to donate uniforms that you no longer need and also ask if we have something that may fit you! 

Did you know that the numbers of pollinating insects are declining in Britain? Insects play a vital role in the ecosystem and help pollinate many plants that we use for food. To combat this we started our project of making a Wellie Wall!  Staff and students donated wellington boots, which we used to help grow pollinating plants.  This not only improved the aesthetics of the car park, but also produced a micro-climate in the city centre for bees, butterflies and other insects to live and also help produce the food that we eat. The Eco-warriers also planted 15 trees in the school grounds donated by the Woodland trust, we look forward to watching them grow.

Recycling is everyone's business! We have focused on increasing recycling within the school.  The Eco-warriors have encouraged everyone to take responsibility and be clear what can/can’t be recycled in school. This meant that we could use old plastic bottles to make Christmas decorations for our eco-Christmas tree. This looked great and can be used again year after year.   


Littering makes our city look a mess and it has a massive detrimental effect on our land, our wildlife and pets and can contaminate our water supply which can really affect our health. The Belvedere eco-warriors have  had numerous litter picking events over the last year.  We have litter picked on Belvedere Road and in Princes Park and collected in excess of 30 bin bags of rubbish. Belvedere has worked with the “Friends of Princes Park”, litter picking, planting trees and cutting back scrubs. We plan to strengthen our relationship with this community group as part of the Duke of Edinburgh Award. As the parks are important for our physical and mental health as well as our environment.

Activity description

Some schools will already have an Eco-committee or similar which will take on this role. Other schools may choose to appoint a class to lead on energy efficiency. Decide which staff will support your team.

In most areas Energy Sparks can help support your Energy Team with visits or online sessions from trained professional educators, volunteer energy mentors or with STEM Ambassadors.  Please book a workshop here.

Educate your team about climate change and energy by carrying out some of the Energy Sparks Explorer activities. Make sure they are really knowledgeable about the importance of energy and climate change, at an appropriate level for their age. It is important that pupils have significant input into the decision-making process and take ownership of any energy saving plans made.

Set up the times and places for your team to meet, including when they will report to the school management team including governor representatives. Your team could split into several sub-groups focussing on different aspects of energy saving.

Your Energy Team will be responsible for reviewing the current energy use situation (using the Energy Sparks charts), developing an energy saving action plan, and monitoring, recording and reducing your energy use. They will particularly be responsible for communicating to your school community, conducting switch off campaigns and measuring how much energy is saved or wasted by pupil and staff behaviour. The group may decide to have a high profile energy efficiency campaign involving the whole school, possibly a power down/layer up day or switch-off fortnight. The team will also need to revisit energy issues on a regular basis to ensure that changes made are sustained over time.

All activities