The Department recently introduced new standards for carbon emissions from new school buildings. The Children's Plan contains a new requirement for all new build schools to reduce carbon emissions by at least 60 per cent. It also includes our longer-term ambition for all new school buildings to be zero carbon by 2016 and we are now appointing a taskforce to advise on how this can be achieved.
These targets for carbon emission complement our requirements for environmental assessments using BREEAM, the Building Research Establishments Environmental Assessment Methodology, which we have adapted for schools. Since 2005 it has been our requirement that major school building projects achieve a minimum BREEAM rating of ‘very good’.