Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) for Schools and Local Authorities

The CRC (Carbon Reduction Commitment) Energy Efficiency Scheme came into effect on the 1st April 2010 as part of the government’s commitment to tackle climate change.

About 20,000 large private and public sector organisations will be involved in the scheme in some way and it is mandatory.

The scheme aims to improve energy efficiency and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted in the UK. This is part of UK governments targets of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 by at least 80% compared to the 1990 baseline.

Organisations that meet the qualification criteria, which are based on how much electricity they were supplied in 2008, will be obliged to participate in CRC.

Participating organisations will have to monitor their emissions and purchase allowances initially sold by Government, for each tonne of CO2 they emit. The more CO2 an organisation emits, the more allowances it has to purchase.

There is a direct incentive for these organisations to reduce their emissions. As well as reducing carbon emissions, by increasing energy efficiency the scheme will help organisations save money by reducing their energy bills. These savings are hoped to be well in excess of the costs of participating in the scheme.

In addition, the better an organisation performs in terms of reducing its emissions, the higher it will appear in the annually published league table, showing the comparative performance of all participants. This in turn provides a further benefit: all the revenue raised from selling allowances is ‘recycled’ back to participants, and the league table position affects how much of the revenue each organisation receives.

If you are a school or local authority then specific rules apply.

In England, Scotland and Wales participating local authorities will be responsible for emissions from all schools maintained by the local authority and any Academies and City Technology Colleges that are geographically located in the area for which the local authority exercises educational functions.

The local authority must consider the electricity supplies to these schools when determining whether it meets the qualification criteria.

■ if the local authority then qualifies, it must either make an information disclosure or participate fully in CRC.
■ during the scheme, schools should give reasonable assistance to their local authority and supply data about their energy supply. In most cases, this can be done once a year and the school can request an annual energy statement from its energy suppliers to help compile this data
■ schools must report their energy supply to their local authority following the same rules that participants must comply with. In the case of PFI schools, where the PFI company is responsible for the energy supply contract, the energy supply will be attributed to the PFI company. Grant-aided schools in Northern Ireland will be included as part of the Education and Skills Authority (ESA) once it comes into operation. Until then, all grant-aided schools will participate as part of their Education and Library Board.


Private schools in Great Britain are not included as part of a local authority’s energy supply. Instead, private schools only participate in CRC if they, or their organisational group (including its school(s), pass the CRC qualification threshold of 6,000 MWh/year of half hourly metered electricity use.

Redstor in partnership with CentraStage provide solutions to help you measure your energy and carbon useage in schools in order to meet the compulsory Carbon Reduction Commitment Obligations.

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