Today’s schools spend a fortune on heating and lighting that could be saved if better schools were designed and built. And schools are the ideal place to start students thinking about environmental sustainability.

This is the view of the Building Research Establishment Trust and the Sustainable Development Commission who are to invest in a new collaborative programme to bring about a step change in sustainable schools – the Schools Design Forum.

The project will address the need increasingly felt by many involved with schools to improve the way sustainability is delivered both in the terms of the way schools are designed and constructed today as well as the way they engage with pupils and the community to promote truly sustainable communities of the future.

Forum members will be demonstrating, through their membership, that they are committed at a national level, to helping make younger generations much more aware of sustainability than we currently are – they will also be responding to the challenge of the Government’s sustainability agenda in a very visible way.

"The case for sustainable schools is absolutely clear," said Sir Jonathon Porritt CBE, Chairman of the SDC. "The economics of better design are evident: schools spend almost £400 million a year on heating and lighting, and a 500- pupil school could save over £8,000 a year through additional energy efficiency measures."

"Above and beyond that, these school buildings are where tomorrow’s adults are forming their ideas and beliefs. If we want sustainable development to matter to our children, there’s no excuse for anything but the highest standards," he added.

The objectives of the Schools Design Forum are to:

• Deliver a realistic but stretching vision of a sustainable school and its links with the community.
• Integrate school sustainability in a way that contributes to social regeneration and sustainable communities.
• Produce a ‘road map’ for LAs, schools, the industry and other stakeholders, that integrates all the disparate demands of sustainability into a national best practice format for sustainable delivery.
• Work collaboratively with LAs, schools, the industry and other stakeholders in creating this road map.
• Identify obstacles and barriers and recommend solutions that enable the vision to be realised.
• Champion and advocate a ‘users’ national agenda for sustainability alongside Government.
• Share and promote best practice.
• Disseminate practical advice to reduce the disparity between those that do it well and those that do not.
• Stimulate and exploit research and innovation to achieve the full sustainability potential of schools.

Initial funding for the Forum has been provided by BRE Trust but the SDF is a national collaborative self-help programme where members joining fees go to fund work to meet the objectives of the SDF and its members.