Expert Zero Carbon Task Force set up

Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, announced in June that the Government was taking the first steps to making every school zero carbon by 2016 by setting up an advisory task force.

Balls confirmed that the respected architect, Robin Nicholson, will chair the expert task force as well as announcing the group’s formal terms of reference.

The Children’s Plan, published last December, set out the Government’s long term ambition for all new school buildings in England to produce no carbon emissions at all from their day-to-day use within eight years. The task force was also announced in the Plan.

The Zero Carbon Task Force will launch a call for evidence later this summer and will report to ministers by the end of the year on overcoming the technological and cost barriers.

Ed Balls said:

“We have already made significant steps to cutting carbon use in schools – backed by our unprecedented capital investment in schools, as well as other initiatives giving local authorities a statutory responsibility to cut car use on the school run…This will be the most ambitious design and building initiative the school system has ever faced. This expert task force drawn from the construction, sustainability and education sectors will help us overcome the technical, design and construction challenges over the next eight years.”

Robin Nicholson said:

“I’m delighted to chair the zero carbon task force. This is not going to be straightforward but if there is one sector that must show the way then it should be schools, at the heart of our communities, especially given the scale of the replacement programmes.”

Expert Zero Carbon Task Force set up

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