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In a decisive move toward climate responsibility, several schools within the Future Academies network launched an ambitious campaign, The Big Switch Off, in partnership with Climatise, a digital carbon and ESG platform. The initiative aimed to reduce environmental impact and inspire lasting sustainable habits among students and staff. Known for their focus on academic excellence and personal development, Future Academies saw an opportunity to unite their school communities around a shared goal: cutting energy use and cultivating a culture of conscious, collective action.
Climatise is a carbon accounting platform that automates emissions tracking, calculation, and reporting for organisations like Future Academies, offering features such as drag-and-drop data uploads without templates, real-time visibility into carbon footprints via instant calculations, and actionable insights through visual dashboards and personalised reduction recommendations. It supports goal setting, progress monitoring with robust tracking systems, automated reporting for regulatory compliance like SECR and GHG Protocol standards, and specialised handling of complex Scope 3 emissions from supply chains and procurement. Additionally, Climatise provides hands-on expert support to build internal processes and expertise, ensuring seamless integration and data security through advanced encryption.
For Future Academies, a multi-academy trust with 10 schools serving over 6,600 students, Climatise replaced inefficient manual spreadsheets and external consulting, which had been time-consuming and error-prone for its small operations team lacking advanced sustainability know-how.
The platform automates data collection across the network, delivering real-time analysis to identify emissions hotspots and enable immediate reduction actions, allowing the trust to become one of the first movers in disclosing voluntary Scope 3 emissions while complying with mandatory Scope 1 and 2 reporting under SECR.
This streamlined processes reduced administrative burdens and costs, aligning with survey findings where 90% of UK education leaders viewed reporting as costly, while empowering the team to maintain continuity in ongoing initiatives like solar panels and LED upgrades, and launch new ones such as gardening clubs and energy-saving campaigns.
By enhancing data visibility and supporting informed decision-making, Climatise fostered a strong sustainability culture across Future Academies' schools, providing a clear roadmap for continuous improvement and better ESG engagement with stakeholders, including Gen Z students who prioritize environmental responsibility. The partnership addressed sector-wide challenges, where over 60% of institutions neglect Scope 3 tracking and 70% feel unprepared, ultimately boosting transparency and practical carbon reduction pathways without disrupting operations.
One of Climatise's key benefits is how its platform enhanced stakeholder engagement for Future Academies, addressing prior communication gaps that made it challenging to clearly share sustainability achievements with parents, students, and staff.
Through its online platform as well as school visits and student roundtables, Climatise and Future Academies made sustainability data accessible and fostered a culture of environmental awareness, idea-sharing, and collaboration to drive ongoing emissions reductions, helping Future Academies demonstrate its commitment to sustainability. With Climatise, they can showcase tangible progress, thereby strengthening trust among students, parents, and the broader community.
The platform's tools also facilitated active involvement in initiatives like energy-saving campaigns. This aligns with survey findings, where 84.6% of users reported enhanced stakeholder engagement through greater awareness and decision-making transparency, thanks to platforms like Climatise.
To further strengthen stakeholder engagement, Future Academies and Climatise partnered on the Big Switch Off Campaign, designed to encourage student-led initiatives for reducing school carbon footprints. This serves as real-life proof of how organisations and digital platforms can unite to drive meaningful impact.
Running from June 23 to July 4, The Big Switch Off was a two-week challenge that empowered students to lead meaningful change. With Climatise’s support, student leadership teams in each participating school conducted energy audits, developed action plans with measurable goals, and encouraged peers to adopt energy-saving habits.
Initiatives ranged from classroom energy checks to school-wide challenges. Faculty and students worked together to identify simple yet powerful behavior changes: reducing unnecessary device usage, moderating air conditioning, and choosing greener commuting options. Using Climatise’s carbon accounting tools, participants could instantly track progress and see the tangible impact of their efforts throughout the campaign.
At the conclusion of the challenge, Future Academies Watford emerged as the overall winner, earning a special prize, an inspiring assembly led by Robin de Carteret, founder of System Games, on the theme “Biomimicry for a Positive Future.” The session encouraged students to draw lessons from nature and consider how innovation can align with environmental stewardship.
Tom Cranfield, Vice Principal (Academic) at Future Academies Watford and project lead, celebrated both the victory and the student engagement throughout the campaign:
“Our students have been brilliant, motivated, creative, and authentic in their efforts. It’s been rewarding to see them take real ownership of reducing energy use and discovering their collective ability to make a difference.”
Reflecting on his assembly, Robin de Carteret explained:
“I wanted to show students how we can take inspiration from nature to make not just products but entire processes more sustainable, and to give them optimism that a small group of people truly can make a big impact.”
From the Climatise team, Lennon Harding-Wade, COO, emphasised how the campaign showcased technology’s power to drive behavioral change:
“Future Academies' approach is inspiring. We were delighted to support The Big Switch Off and see Climatise used not just as a carbon dashboard but as an engagement tool, making data-driven action visible and exciting. It’s the kind of initiative we’d love to see replicated nationally across many more schools.”
The campaign’s impact was both immediate and measurable. At Future Academies Watford, energy consumption fell significantly over the two weeks, generating cost savings and reducing CO₂ emissions. More importantly, it cultivated habits and awareness that extended well beyond the two-week timeframe.
This example carries weight across the broader education sector. The UK has committed to achieving net zero by 2050, and schools, colleges, and universities, major institutional energy users, play a vital role in reaching that target. Studies of 537 UK higher and further education institutions found they collectively emitted over 18 million tonnes of CO₂ and greenhouse gases, representing approximately 2.3% of the nation’s total footprint.
A recent Climatise survey of 500 UK education leaders revealed that:
However, institutions using carbon accounting tools report clear benefits. 84.6% noted improved environmental awareness, efficiency-driven cost savings, stronger stakeholder engagement, and clearer pathways to reduction. Significantly, 83.4% said emissions reporting has directly influenced their decisions around energy and emissions management.
Moreover, 81% of education leaders agreed that sustainability and ESG transparency are highly important to their Gen Z students, underlining the growing expectation for schools to model environmental responsibility.
The Future Academies network has shown how education, technology, and community purpose can align to achieve real change. The Big Switch Off did more than reduce energy use, it empowered students to become genuine sustainability champions.
Other schools are encouraged to follow their lead. By adopting tools like Climatise, schools can turn good intentions into measurable outcomes, and transform data into awareness.
At Climatise, we help businesses achieve this every day. Our AI-powered ESG software helps teams spend less time calculating their carbon footprint and more time reducing it. Get in touch to find out how our platform can streamline your carbon accounting processes, allowing you to focus on implementing actionable insights that reduce your environmental impact.
