What are the benefits?
Managing a school’s energy and water consumption can be a daunting and time consuming task for a single individual and it is unlikely that your school will have an individual who will be able to cover all the elements required if you are using a Whole School Approach.
A dedicated utility team will make use of any individual skills or knowledge available, reduce the work of any one individual and make use of the skills or knowledge of any available individuals.
How to get started - setting up a utility team
See if it is possible to adapt any existing school teams and identify any additional help you may need in order to reduce your energy and water consumption.
If compiling your utility team from scratch, it is a good idea to break down the activity into a number of smaller areas - use the programme tasks on this site as a starting point. Then identify individuals or groups that could help you with these activities and approach them to see if they are willing to get involved. Finally ask for volunteers to help fill in any gaps or to provide greater assistance.
It is always a good idea to include some pupils in the team as they can add a different perspective along with a high level of energy and motivation. Some schools have selected pupils based on their year group whilst others have run election campaigns which have tied into citizenship and other curricular activities.
Resources to help you with this activity
- Find out what others are doing. If you have a question or need further help, post a message on the discussion forum.
- Download and use the 'meeting notes template' from the programme tasks section of the website. Complete the activities in the utility teams section of the Scheme Progress Booklet and keep the meeting notes together so you can send everything in when you are ready to apply for Level 2 (of 3) under the programme.
Where to get further information
A summary of suggested roles for specific team members is provided as an insert to the free Carbon Trust guide ‘A Whole School Approach’ (CTV037).
