Matt and his opposite number at OAT, James Miller, are undertaking a joint procurement to replace electric lights with LED lighting and install photo-voltaic cells/solar panels . It is the only collaborative inter-MAT project in the country and, by combining forces, it means more savings are generated as the two MATs share procurement costs and have greater buying power than a single MAT.

Brooke Weston Trust and Ormiston have produced detailed condition surveys of their school estates and the data generated has enabled us to accurately identify where the most urgent needs are and the most efficient savings can be made. This enabled our partners EO Consulting and Barker Associates to efficiently write a robust business case that was successful in winning an interest free loan for over £2m from the Education Funding Agency.

The filming is a ‘before and after’ case study, showing the replacement of a flat roof at Beanfield Primary School, plus the installation of photovoltaic cells. Both these improvements will result in long term savings and the fact that they will be ‘batched’ together and completed as one project also generates additional installation savings.

The filmed case study will evidence the benefits of data collection and collaboration and will be used both by the BWT and schools across the Trust Network, and also at the Academies Show .

Estates Director Matt Isherwood said: ‘This is part of a collaborative project of circa 15 school sites between BWT and Ormiston that utilise the MAT capital pilot loan scheme to invest in technologies that will reduce energy consumption on school sites.  While both projects were applied for independently they referenced one another as part of the application. It is the only collaborative Inter- Trust project in the country. We are spending £250,000 on energy reducing technologies meaning our purchasing power is enhanced and procurement costs are reduced compared to doing it as a single MAT. Estimates suggest we will save around £75,000 per annum in energy costs across the Trust.’

Brooke Weston Trust is  supported by EO Consulting on our Estates projects and their Director, Jonathan Coyles, said: ‘The advantage of advising across several MATs is that we can all work collaboratively to harness aggregated efficiencies. Working in partnership with Faithful + Gould and Barkers to ensure condition surveys were done to a consistent framework across both Trusts, we were able to quickly flag up efficiency opportunities and put a strong spend to save case forward to the EFA that should reduce the electricity bill by about 30%. The filming should help illustrate more broadly how such savings are enabled by a shared approach to data collection, analysis and reporting plus collaborative project delivery.'