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The UK's top sustainable energy pioneers were last night rewarded at the 2009 Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy ceremony hosted by HRH The Prince of Wales in London.
Currie Community High School were among the winners saving thousands of tonnes in carbon emissions annually and leading the way in sustainable innovation, education and design.
Currie is a 900-pupil secondary school near Edinburgh that has taken giant strides in reducing energy use over the past 10 years. The first school in Edinburgh to install a wind turbine, and the first Scottish school to win an Ashden Award, it also has a solar thermal system, and pupils enjoy cross-curricular learning on sustainable energy. Sustainable energy issues are core to the school's day-to-day practice. Pupils have patrolled the classrooms, switching off lights and appliances, use energy monitors to track energy use and make pledges to save energy at home.
Their Energy Group has reduced lighting wastage alone by 5%. 2,000 lights have been upgraded to low-energy designs; windows have been sealed and doors replaced to reduce heat loss, and the boiler is switched off for several months of the year. Solar thermal panels heat the school swimming pool. They £15,000 prize awarded.
HRH the Prince of Wales said: "Meeting the winners has, as always, raised my spirits. The major value of these awards is that they demonstrate what is possible, not only for small scale-scale projects, but what is achievable for the whole world. So much of what we need to build cleaner and more efficient communities is already with us."
The Ashden Awards judges said: "What Currie has achieved is not just installation of technology, it also has the pupil-led encouragement of sustainable energy behaviour. The way that Currie has embedded energy education throughout its curriculum is one of its main strengths and can be shared with other schools.
"Ashley School demonstrates what can be achieved when a governing body, head teacher, staff and parents work together to make a school more sustainable."
(GK/JM)
