Skip to main content

Environmental Sustainability Statement

The Commonweal School is committed to providing high quality education that is underpinned by a global perspective and values of mutual care and respect. We are therefore also committed to monitoring and minimising the school’s environmental impact.

We monitor and evaluate our use of energy, water and waste generation.  We aim to lead by example with the promotion and demonstration of environmental sustainability values for example, teaching specific topics to raise awareness of environmental issues.

In order to do this, we will:

  • Meet and, where possible, exceed all current European and national environmental legislative and regulatory requirements.
  • Adopt best operational practices to reduce environmental impacts of the activities and policies of The Commonweal School.
  • Measure and take action to reduce the carbon footprint of our activities and ensure our buildings and services are able to adapt to environmental change.
  • Monitor, manage and minimise the use of energy and water by The Commonweal School.
  • Minimise the environmental impact of travel on school trips.
  • Minimise the amount of waste produced by The Commonweal School to encourage greater reuse in recycling.
  • Ensure environmental, including climate change, criteria are taken into account in the procurement of goods and services.
  • Consider environmental factors in The Commonweal School’s decisions and activities including giving due consideration to environmental issues and energy performance in the design, refurbishment, and use of our buildings which includes performances and activities.
  • Encourage and develop our students, their families, employees, volunteers, partners and all stakeholders to conduct their activities in an environmentally responsible manner.

In addition, the annual conditions survey completed by an external consultant in August 2022 highlighted the following potential energy improvements across the school site:

  1. Improve roof insulation whilst undertaking roof replacement works reducing the required heating load during the winter and reducing excess temperatures during the summer, requiring less cooling and ventilation.
  2. Upgrade existing lighting to LED units throughout. A planned programme to replace the lighting across the building would result in additional energy savings and reduce potential downtime. The project could incorporate improved control gear, resulting in remote sensing and absence detection, resulting in lights being left on for less time.
  3. Within the English, Maths and Science modular buildings the heating and cooling to the building is provided via split air conditioning units. Improvements could be gained by siting external units to provide greater efficiency.   These units are controlled by wall mounted control equipment that should be set to correct times and dates significantly improve efficiency.
  4. Future repairs and refurbishment, particularly of the Old Gym roof, may also be suitable for the addition of solar panels to the roof covering to provide additional carbon neutral source of power to the site.
  5. Use of a grey water storage, particularly if any substantial refurbishment of the drainage system is undertaken to provide greater resilience to the surrounding drainage system, resulting in less instant discharge which could result in localised flooding.

Items 1 to 3 of the above are already being implemented.

Items 4 and 5 will be considered in any future school plans.