Ashden is the force behind #LetsGoZero, a UK- wide movement that unites schools working together to be carbon zero by 2030. Led by a powerful coalition of sustainability organisations, the campaign supports UK schools to set zero carbon targets, develop roadmaps for delivery, share their learnings with staff, students and families, and work together with local councils and government to make it happen. It provides a powerful route for schools to drive impact-led action and unite behind a call for much-needed funding to help all schools become zero carbon by 2030.
Leora Cruddas, CEO of CST said, ‘As civic structures at the heart of our communities, school trusts are uniquely placed to inspire people to think and act differently. Our members do this through their values, curriculum and by taking action to reduce the carbon footprint of our schools.
As the Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel De Souza recently found as part of her ‘The Big Ask’ initiative, children care deeply about the environment. As civic leaders, school trusts will be able to help support children’s hopes for the future in this area. We welcome the support that #LetsGoZero offers trust leaders and will champion this important campaign across our sector.’
Alex Green, Programme Manager for #LetsGoZero, said, ‘We are very pleased to welcome CST as the sector organisation for school trusts, to our campaign. CST’s members are valued partners for our mission to unite teachers, pupils and parents and trusts to work together to achieve carbon zero schools by 2030. Working with trust leaders alongside individual schools will help us to go further and faster in achieving our goals.’
Ashden joins Barker Education as a CST partner in supporting school trust sustainability. As an estates management specialist, Barker is dedicated to helping school trusts to develop and implement decarbonisation strategies and secure grant funding for capital building and energy projects. Writing in this month’s Trust Journal, Robert Gould, Partner at Barker, advocated #LetsGoZero to trust leaders and sustainability champions as the first step in this journey, with a wealth of free advice and resources to support them. Robert’s view on the importance of taking this step is clear:
‘Currently schools in this country contribute 25% of carbon emissions from the public sector but the funding to support schools on their decarbonisation journeys does not match in either scale or delivery structure. With more and more schools and Trusts demonstrating their desire to change, we can help convince the government to review how it supports the trust sector and come together to share ideas on how to use resources most effectively. There should be no excuses. Doing nothing is no longer an option.’
