BRANCASTER MILLENNIUM ACTIVITY CENTRE, NORFOLK
Jo Johnson, Centre Manager
Climate change will affect everyone. The Trust can set an example and show that if everybody did small things now it could make a big difference to all our futures.
Our Centre is a 16th-century listed building, so we can't alter its historic
appearance. But we can cut carbon use, using locally made furniture, shredded
newspaper insulation, electricity from photo-voltaic cells and wind-turbines,
and heat from solar panels and a heat pump.
It demonstrates sustainable living to children who come here on activity weeks.
On Mondays they divide into eco-ranger groups, such as Sparks (saving electricity),
Rotters (composting), Clangers (recycling) or Fairtraders (running an ethical
tuckshop).
All week they gather data, then feed it into a computer package to compare
their use of resources with the average UK household. They decide how to transfer
these lessons to their schools and homes, and prepare presentations for their
school assemblies.
Our new Energy Busters scheme takes this thinking out into 48 Norfolk primary
schools. Over six sessions, one class works out ways to persuade the whole school
to save energy in a Switch Off, Keep Cool week. We hoped for 10% savings, but
the average was 20%, and some saved an amazing 40%. Repeated across the UK,
the effect would be huge.
What matters is that students take all the decisions, not staff or governors,
so the message also gets through to their families. And later as adults they'll
have the tools to make the right decisions in their own homes and workplaces.
We've also piloted Energy Busters with staff and volunteers in five Trust properties.
We saw massive savings of 25% in their Switch Off, Keep Cool weeks. When you
think that the Trust's target is 10%, that's an amazing result.
