Scotland's schools are to become greener under a new Government initiative to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Education Secretary Fiona Hyslop has announced a package of measures which will work towards a lower carbon school estate and meet the Government's commitments to have renewable generation in every school.

The initiative will contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050 as will be required under the Scottish Climate Change Bill.

The measures include working with Carbon Trust to 'up-skill' local authorities to ensure they have the appropriate abilities and confidence to secure sustainable school design.

Funding will be granted for two Schools Renewables Development Officers to work with authorities to increase the uptake of micro-renewables in schools by developing packages of funding from public and private.

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A new sustainable schools 'web-portal' will act as an authoritative source of advice and guidance on creating a low carbon school estate.

In response, the Government will work with the Carbon Trust to develop a package of measures designed to help local authorities secure sustainable school designs.

Ms Hyslop said: "The green message to be conveyed through environmentally-friendly school buildings and facilities cannot be stressed enough."

Recently the Minister visited Sanderson's Wynd Primary school in Tranent, its design is leading the way in sustainable low carbon school in action. The school has a combination of automatic lighting which reacts to the amount of daylight in a room, a windmill and solar panels on the roof to provide electricity.

"All of the measures at Sanderson will be important in helping tackle climate change and, at a time of high fuel prices, both renewable generation and energy efficiency measures will be important in helping local authorities reduce consumption, carbon emissions and energy bills."

John Stocks, manager of the Carbon Trust in Scotland, said: "We have been pleased with our project with Inverclyde Council to help secure schools with a significantly lower carbon footprint than their more traditional designs.

"We must now repeat this exercise working with more public sector procurement teams and ensuring that bid teams will have to incorporate low carbon design principles into their proposed solutions."

(GK/KMcA)