In the mid 2000s, Ruyton made the decision to build an Aquatic Centre on the school grounds. As a school committed to sustainability, the extra resource use impact of the pool was a consideration in our planning.

During the design process, we included several environmentally-friendly features, including water tanks to collect water for toilet flushing and garden watering, air circulation fans, variable speed water pumps, special filters to reduce water waste in backwash, and double-glazing of windows.

Then in 2010, the School’s Board decided to put aside enough money into a Sustainability Budget to allow us to buy 100% Green Electricity for the whole Aquatic Centre complex and so since July 2010, the Aquatic Centre has been run on 100% Certified Green Power. The Aquatic Centre uses between 23,000kwh and 30,000kwh of electricity every month. By buying 100% Green Power, we have reduced our Greenhouse Gas Emissions by between 32 and 36 tonnes every month, which adds up to close to 400 tonnes per year.

Since the Aquatic Centre electricity usage represents at least 30% of our total school electricity use, we have been able to make a significant reduction in our carbon footprint – and we’re thrilled!!

We believe this is very important because, as a well-endowed private school, we tend to have plenty of access to resources, so a key issue for us is making choices that don’t take those resources for granted.