Cheney School are Winners!

Headteacher Rob Pavey being presented with EnCo Award 2022 from Energy Management Consultant, Wendy Cheeseman
Headteacher Rob Pavey being presented with EnCo Award 2022 from Energy Management Consultant, Wendy Cheeseman

We have won a prestigious Energy Conscious Organisation Award, one of only two awards presented this year at the EnCO annual conference. 

Cheney became the first school in the world to achieve Energy Conscious Organisation (EnCO) Status last year, after demonstrating to an expert panel that we've reduced energy consumption through behavioural change initiatives across the organisation.

The EnCO 2022 award was given to Cheney at a special ceremony in London last month, alongside a global engineering corporation - demonstrating that all types of organisations can get involved and do their bit.

The project has been led for five years by both the Finance and Operation teams and supported by the Headteacher and staff as well as local energy management consultancy REDUCE YOUR USE.

Local energy management consultant, Wendy Cheeseman, an accredited EnCO practitioner, has supported Cheney through the project which has also generated significant energy cost savings, as well as carbon reduction.

Since the project began Cheney has reduced electricity consumption by almost a quarter to 23%, with overnight savings of 30%. Before we started the carbon emissions associated with school electricity use was 266 tonnes CO2e. The figure for the last 12 months is 107 tonnes CO2e, a 60% reduction.

For many years out-of-hours consumption was the focus across the school by the Operations Team, but more and more staff and pupils are getting involved and switching off.

Phoebe Mortimer, Lead KS3 English teacher and Sustainability Lead for the River Learning Trust said: “The commitment to sustainability and the drive to reduce carbon across the school has gathered momentum in recent years. This award and our electricity reduction is tangible proof that we follow through on intentions and commitments to living low carbon lifestyles at school for our pupils and in the workplace for staff.”

“This award demonstrates that Cheney is achieving carbon and energy reduction targets year-on-year but importantly it cuts costs for us. Any school can achieve this, it is good for budgets as well as the planet,” said Rob Pavey, Headteacher.

The school’s energy consultant, Wendy Cheeseman, said “I recommend all schools to consider cutting energy consumption by more forensic analysis of their supply data showing when and why energy is consumed and if this is expected.