Almost one half of children’s advised maximum consumption of natural resources occurs during the school day, a Cambridge University-led study has found.

A group of pupils at a school in Loughborough, supported by an engineering student at the University, found that 45 per cent of a pupil’s fair earth share – the ideal maximum consumption of natural resources per person – is used to sustain their school activities, even though these take up just one fifth of their time.

Fair earth share is defined by scientists as the total amount of the earth’s natural resources divided by the total human population. This calculates how much natural resources are available to each person. However, in developed countries people use more than their fair share.

Christopher Cleaver, from the Department of Engineering, who conceived and designed this pilot programme to measure the ecological impact of pupils’ lifestyles, hopes to develop the initiative further by helping pupils to reduce the ecological footprint incurred during the school day.

The research was carried out with students at the Harry Carlton School in Loughborough. They looked into several life-style areas that have an effect on climate change and identified four key areas where change is needed: Shelter (electricity and gas usage), Mobility (transportation to and from the school), Goods (stationery) and Food. At the end of the investigation the findings were presented to a panel of four academics from the University’s Department of Engineering.

Shelter and mobility had the biggest impact on climate change. The use of stationery and eating were the other “big-hitters”. For each area, the students also identified simple actions that could lead to significant reductions in their schools’ footprint.

The initiative was developed by Christopher in an effort to stimulate the study of climate change and what can be done to ease the effects of human activity. He is now applying for funding and with the support from the University he aims to make this programme a national scheme.

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