“We believe energy efficiency is important because it saves natural resources, helps to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, leads to less waste and pollution, as well as saving money. Learning about energy efficiency measures in school will encourage children to act as ambassadors and spread new behaviours to the wider community”

Clay Vaughn
ExxonMobil Production Manager, Aberdeen

Headteacher at Broomhill School in Aberdeen City, Zosia Colling, was keen to get involved with the energy efficiency programme offered by ExxonMobil to their link schools.

Zosia invited Ann Saffery of CREATE to come and discuss ways to save money on energy bills and inspire the whole school community to reduce waste.

Energy Manager for Aberdeen City Council, Brian Smith, was asked to support the Headteacher’s enthusiasm to save energy and as a result, he agreed to carry out energy surveys at all the ExxonMobil link schools in the area. The report for Broomhill clearly identified that by installing a separate pump and heating controls for the nursery unit, annual savings of £1,000 could be achieved. A further £160 per annum could be realised by draught proofing external doors and to top it all an instantaneous water heater in the staff room, to replace the continuously bubbling tea urn, would save another £150 a year!

The savings stated in the report were also expressed in kilowatt hours: A total of 153,040, which relates to 18.4 tonnes of carbon (the weight of 12.5 elephants) and enough carbon dioxide (one of the major greenhouse gases) to fill 383 double decker busses (67,338 Kg)!

The council arranged for the necessary measures to be installed during holiday periods and claimed 50% of the funds back from the SchoolEnergy programme, an Energy Saving Trust initiative, which was managed by CREATE.

Special assemblies and classroom activities were carried out at Broomhill by CREATE, to help the pupils to understand the importance of saving energy. A class of P6 children attended a special celebration, hosted by ExxonMobil, at Satrosphere, Aberdeen’s ‘hands-on’ science centre. They joined other schools in Scotland that have been involved in the programme and inspired new link schools to do more to promote the energy saving message by sharing their experience.

Several other schools in the City and in Aberdeenshire have taken advantage of the support from the energy efficiency programme, which offers staff training, resources and classroom activities, to help introduce a whole school approach to energy management.