Pupils at Beeston's John Clifford School, students from the University of Nottingham's Department of Architecture & Built Environment, and volunteers of Greening Beeston, have come together to show the local community, via a range of "how-to" posters displayed around the town's shops, cafes and notice boards, the part it can play in reducing energy usage and saving money.
Over the last few weeks, year 5 pupils at John Clifford have been busy creating drawings of a range of energy saving actions inspired by a series of animations created and presented to them by students from the University of Nottingham.
The campaign, the brainchild of Greening Beeston - a group of volunteers who are passionate about saving energy - is designed to raise awareness about some of the no-cost actions that we can all take in our homes and in our daily lives, to save energy and save money.
After showing their animated presentation to the pupils, Alistair Tiplady and Jessica Barnett, students of the Architectural Environment Engineering course at the University of Nottingham, visited the school over several days to help the pupils develop and fine-tune their drawings for the 'save energy - save money' campaign.
Dr Xiaofeng Zheng, Assistant Professor in Architectural Environment Engineering (AEE) at the Department of Architecture and Built Environment, and also a member of Greening Beeston, says that the key aim of Greening Beeston is closely linked to the aim of the AEE course at the university, linked to building energy efficiency and saving.
We are thrilled to collaborate with the local community on this meaningful project. It's inspiring to see our AEE students Alistair and Jessica work alongside pupils and volunteers to promote sustainable practices that benefit both the environment and household budgets."
Sir Martyn Poliakoff, representing Greening Beeston, said: "We want Beeston to become for sustainability what Hay-on-Wye has become for books."
Greening Beeston aim to encourage the residents of Beeston to understand more about the Climate Crisis and to make changes to help tackle it by reducing the amount of energy they use.
Janine Waring, Head at John Clifford School, said: "We are proud of our links with our local community, and we regularly take part in events and fundraising efforts to benefit local people and our local area.
"The students from the University of Nottingham initiated discussions about energy saving and money saving strategies to inspire the children to want to communicate a clear message to the people of Beeston. The children feel passionate that this message should be shared and celebrated as it fits in with many of the school's values.
"The children have thoroughly enjoyed being part of this project and have learnt many ways to support the environment and also to communicate clearly with others."
Greg Marshall, Deputy Leader of Broxtowe Borough Council, has also supported the campaign and says: "The Council is thrilled to support the brilliant Greening Beeston, John Clifford School and the University of Nottingham.
"The artwork by the pupils is wonderful and is a great way to highlight the serious links between energy use and climate change. We fully support the save energy – save money campaign."
The posters will be printed and displayed in Beeston from the 14th December.
