Using Less

The Idea.

Using Less Stuff has become increasingly popular and now has it’s own dedicated website. Please go to www.using-less-stuff.com for lots of tips and ideas to save money and resources.

To achieve lasting savings it is necessary to learn how to use less stuff – less of everything from energy to paper. This requires a combination of the right mindset and the right technologies.

The Using Less programme is designed to help schools to establish the right mindset in the school population, from senior staff leadership to youngest student.

There is plenty of evidence that dramatic savings can be achieved when staff and pupils are motivated to change their behaviour regarding usage. Most of the Heads and senior staff that we talk to recognise this. Smart technology can help; but the ultimate goal should be to render everybody much more aware of the consequences of wastefulness. This requires ideas, education and training, and continued motivation. All too often there is somebody in a school in charge of all this, who is a lone voice in the wilderness. Often it’s the bursar, who simply does not have time to give the issue the attention required.

CRC will help by:

• Acting as the catalyst for instilling a permanent change in the way the school approaches the use of resources.
• Providing a pragmatic mechanism to get all staff and students engaged in change, at an achievable rate.
• Helping the school to define a policy and a programme.
• Helping the school to set practical termly targets.
• Coaching, mentoring, encouraging and – when required – nagging and cajoling.
• Sharing best practice learned from other schools.
• Providing an online portal to authentic, sifted information about what else is going on in the UK that might be relevant or helpful to the school.
• Advising on monitoring technologies, and sourcing them if required at an affordable price.
• Advising on technologies that will also help reduce consumption, and sourcing them as required.