Energy and water accreditation

Carbon Detectives is an international pupil-led programme supported by the Department of Energy and Climate Change to help schools reduce their energy consumption. Once registered, it offers you a whole range of tools and resources to help you monitor and reduce your energy consumption.

It’s an excellent way to gain recognition for your school’s efforts, and an easy way of recording progress. You can even win prizes and participating is a structured means to make progress in the now compulsory energy doorway of Eco-Schools so any work carried out around energy and water can be applied to both programmes.

How to get started

Here are nine easy steps to help your school on its journey to embedding energy efficiency into the curriculum:

1. Register your school on the Carbon Detectives website.
2. Email the Sustainability Unit at sustainability@richmond.gov.uk for support and further resources.
3. Establish a green team or allocate environmental responsibilities to an exsiting group e.g. school council.
4. Carry out a school 'walk-round' to provide up to date information on how much energy / water is being used and where.
5. Use information from the walk-round to produce an action plan, setting clear objectives and targets for energy and water consumption and measurement of progress.
6. Monitor utility use by taking weekly gas and electricity meter readings and entering them online using the SystemsLink bureau service or if you have AMR data installed, saverenergyonline.
7. Raise awareness of energy and water saving throughout the school community.
8. Incorporate energy and water efficiency into curricular activities.
9. Set targets to reduce energy and water use in your school, and keep track of the savings made.