Solar panels and wind turbines 'for all new schools'

Published on Tuesday 29 December 2009 21:28

ALL new schools built under the controversial Scottish Futures Trust should be environmentally friendly and include features such as solar panels or wind turbines, according to a senior teaching leader.

Ronnie Smith, general secretary of Scotland's biggest teaching union, the EIS, said: "Since many of our existing schools were built, there have been huge advances in terms of more efficient heating and ventilation systems, better natural insulation for maintaining comfortable temperatures, without the need for mechanical assistance, and other advances such as improvements in water and energy efficiency, as well as the development of highly-efficient solar panels, wind turbines and heat sinks for the generation and storage of cleaner energy.

"These are the types of advances that we should be looking to integrate into as many school buildings as possible."

The Scottish Futures Trust is the SNP Scottish Government's alternative to using private finance in public services, also known as Private Public Partnership or Private Finance Initiative.

However, it has been criticised for not having produced any new schools yet and has been accused of being little more than an advisory body. Previous schools built under PPP schemes have been slammed for poor design such as overheating and windows which don't open.

Mr Smith added: "It is essential that, whenever a school is rebuilt or refurbished, proper steps are taken to ensure that the facilities are as ecologically sound as possible.

"Once the Scottish Futures Trust finally starts to deliver much-needed new school buildings, it must place a great degree of emphasis on constructing modern buildings which are well suited to modern learning and teaching methods, but which are also extremely environmentally friendly."

Mr Smith also called for more schools to achieve eco-school status, currently held by just a quarter of Scotland's schools. Eco-Schools is an international initiative designed to encourage whole-school action for the environment.

The EIS says that just 900 schools, of the country's 3,600, have green flag status –

which is awarded to schools for proving they are doing a range of environmentally aware activities such as recycling, growing their own food, and tackling pollution by encouraging children to cycle to school.

Earlier this month Portobello High in Edinburgh became the first secondary school in Scotland to achieve permanent green flag status.