Peckham school celebrates its Low Carbon Zone achievements
Published 3 August 2011
Pupils at the Peckham Park school held a celebration event to mark a major energy saving milestone.
The school, which is the only school in the borough's Low Carbon Zone (LCZ), installed new heating systems to save as much as 33 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year, the equivalent of taking 16 cars off the road for a year, as well as carrying out other energy efficiency work, a gardening project and cycle training.
Cllr Barrie Hargrove, Cabinet Member for Transport, Environment and Recycling at Southwark Council, visited the school to help them celebrate the changes. He said:
"It's great to see the range of activities that are underway to enable Peckham Park to become a more sustainable school. The new heating system will enable the school to save energy and money, whilst the food growing and cycle training projects will help to foster green habits in the longer term."
Carol Reid, the deputy head of Peckham Park school added:
"The children have enjoyed helping the school to be greener. They particularly enjoyed the low carbon classroom project and it's good to see them growing their own food as a result."
New boilers and controls were installed with Mayor of London, Boris Johnson's funding as part of his goal to 'retrofit' London through initiatives such as these to make the city more energy efficient and cut carbon by 60 per cent by 2025.
The Mayor, said:
"Bravo to Peckham Park school for this fantastic efforts to go save energy. This chalks up a win-win helping us to retrofit London to become a more energy efficient city whilst also saving money for the school to plough back into the coffers for the benefit of its pupils."
Background Information
What else has been implemented at the Peckham Park School.
-
Cycle training was delivered to Year 6 pupils at the school in order to promote sustainable transport.
-
The LCZ funded a voluntary group, the London Wildlife Trust, to deliver two 'Low Carbon Classroom' events at the school in November 2010 and March 2011. Activities involved food planting, a waste free lunch challenge, and bird and bug box making.
The Mayor wants to make London a low carbon city, creating 'green collar' job opportunities and retrofitting buildings to lower energy bills by becoming more energy efficient. These zones will showcase exactly how London can become a low carbon city by using a wide range of measures to help people cut carbon and by specifically by reducing the emissions of some of London's older buildings, which have generally been more difficult to make energy efficient. For more information visit his low carbon zone pages
The LCZ programme is a community based approach to reducing CO2 emissions in London. Ten London boroughs were awarded funding by the Mayor of London to deliver schemes. Southwark's Low Carbon Zone is in Peckham. Each Low Carbon Zone is expected to pilot innovative approaches to carbon reduction that can be rolled out across London and the UK.
The LCZ programme will run until March 2012
More information is available on the council's energy efficiency web pages
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson announced the 10 Low Carbon Zones (know as RE:CONNECT) at the London Congress, a meeting of the Mayor of London and the capital's 33 boroughs at the Guildhall in September 2009.
