An interview with…Jessica Marshall – National Environmental Sustainability Manager at Oasis Community Learning
Oasis Community Learning has achieved some enviable energy saving results over the last year. Here, their National Environmental Sustainability Manager – Jessica Marshall – shares the secrets to their success…
Oasis Community Learning is a large Multi-Academy Trust of 56 primary, secondary and all-through schools that provide education to over 32,000 young people across England.
The first Oasis academies joined Energy Sparks in 2022, and now all of them are signed up. Collectively, over the last year, their energy saving efforts have saved Oasis more than £200,000*, and cut carbon by over 500 tonnes CO2.
Here, Jessica Marshall offers her insights and advice for other Multi-Academy Trust leaders who are struggling to engage their schools in energy saving.
What motivates Oasis Community Learning to bring down energy?
Energy saving falls squarely within the first of Oasis Community Learning’s main commitments relating to the environment, which is to be climate considerate.
We are seeing sustainability gradually rise up the agenda across the education sector, but cost is a real motivating factor for energy saving in particular. This really came to the forefront at Oasis a few years ago during the energy crisis, which hit our trust very hard.
I think for leaders that was a big wake-up call, and we have since seen that making cost savings through better energy management is something that is fairly achievable.
What barriers have you faced in getting schools to engage with energy saving?
The main barrier is around time and other competing priorities – this is especially true on the teaching side of things.
We have found that engagement in energy saving across our academies is quite varied, and it often depends on the school Principal and how much they have bought into the trust’s sustainability commitments.
We have been trying to tackle this in a variety of ways; we have an engaged group of academy based eco-champions who help to drive action, and we also come at the problem from a finance angle – energy is a hot topic for regional finance managers.
Additionally, we have increased the variety of people who have Energy Sparks user accounts. Originally the pool of people who had access was quite limited, but now we have operations managers, facilities managers, finance managers and others signed up.
Another challenge is that a school’s energy performance can fluctuate over time due to changes in staff, leadership engagement and priorities. I think that’s just the nature of schools, but we’re happy if we can see our academies chipping away at their inefficiencies over time.
Working alongside me is an environmental team coordinator, and together we try to get out at least once a week to visit our academies. It takes up a lot of time, but I have found that these visits are really valuable in terms of encouraging our academies to engage with energy saving and sustainability.
We also have an internal steering group with representatives from across the trust (e.g. from IT, finance etc). The aim is to direct and guide the strategy, and to ensure that sustainability is embedded throughout the trust. One of the things we are currently looking at is how to better embed sustainability – especially renewable energy and green careers – into the curriculum.
What was your initial experience of using the platform?
When I started in my role, I was new to the education sector and I just couldn’t believe there was a platform like this!
I had previously worked in housing, and although there were data platforms out there, there was nothing like Energy Sparks – nothing that both presented the energy use data and patterns as well as giving step-by-step guidance on how to tackle problems and ideas about energy saving activities in an engaging way.
For the academies that have all their meters connected to Energy Sparks and can use the whole tool, Energy Sparks can be very motivating. And the more they use it, the more energy saving becomes a habit.
What are the biggest energy saving challenges at Oasis Community Learning?
Out-of-hours use is something we still have not managed to completely solve, which can be frustrating as it seems like such an obvious fix.
But the Energy Sparks tool is really useful for highlighting the potential savings in this area – it is quite eye opening for our leaders and staff when they can see that in some academies weekend energy use doesn’t look any different from weekdays.
Energy Sparks has also shown just how key the Building Management Systems (BMS) are to success; it has also revealed how much variation there is in our staff’s ability to manage BMS well and has highlighted cases where contractors are needed for support.
Energy Sparks analysis also flagged to us that we hadn’t specified control optimisation in our previous BMS servicing contracts, and this was hindering our ability to improve our energy performance significantly. We have since shared our efficiency goals with these contractors, and are working more closely with them to achieve these goals. Energy Sparks helps to identify where systems might not be working well or need changes, so we can flag these before the BMS visits.
77% of Oasis academies† have made savings on gas over the last year, including nine that have saved over 30% (which is in line with our best performing schools). To what would you attribute this success?
It’s a tricky one to answer. I think mostly it’s about chipping away at the energy consumption, by adjusting things such as BMS settings, temperature or heating schedules. For me that feels more realistic and achievable than making a single big change and expecting miraculous results.
As I mentioned earlier, visiting the actual plant rooms or looking at the BMS with academy staff is incredibly helpful…and can yield surprises!
As much as possible, I try to empower our estates staff – particularly in terms of listening to them. Sometimes I think it can be a bit of a lonely job – they get all the complaints if rooms feel too cold, but if the temperature is fine and things are working well they are seen as just doing their job, sometimes when up against old or faulty systems.
We also look to empower staff to make big changes. For example, I use Energy Sparks analysis to evidence how much we could benefit from fixing or upgrading systems, providing a stronger financial case for these remedial works. This can be key because often, until fixes are made, facilities managers can be limited in what they can achieve.
Want to learn more? Why not take a
look at our interview with David Reed, Facilities Manager
at Northampton Academy (part of United Learning).
Energy Sparks recently ran a campaign encouraging schools to cut their heating waste by adjusting the settings and timings of their heating systems. What advice do you have for other trust leaders that want to get their schools to engage with this?
From my perspective, I think this is the perfect change…because it doesn’t feel like a change at all! If heating is running out of hours, then making changes shouldn’t impact the daily comfort or experience of school staff – in fact, the majority of people won’t even notice that anything has changed!
Depending on your setup, you might need to consider some upskilling of estates staff or more contractor visits, but this kind of energy saving action quickly pays you back, and it’s an opportunity to empower staff.
I will add that looking at Energy Sparks data before and after these kinds of changes are made is really satisfying!
55% of your academies† have made savings on their electricity over the last year and 84%† have saved since joining Energy Sparks – this often requires a broader community approach. What do you think has driven your great results, and what advice do you have for other trusts looking to embed more sustainable behaviours (such as switching off lights and appliances) in their schools?
Electricity can be more difficult because, as you say, it’s about making lots of smaller changes and about changing behaviours.
What we have seen is that electricity use in our academies is on a consistent downward trend, which is what we are looking for – schools building on the small things, like switch off behaviours.
As I mentioned earlier, visits to schools can really help, as we often spot things that people overlook, like:
- Lights and smart boards being left on in empty classrooms
- Hot plates left on in kitchens after lunch
- Empty fridges that are running
- Fridges and freezers that need to be defrosted to improve their efficiency
When we point these things out, staff will often say that these are one-off anomalies, but we think from their data that actually they aren’t anomalies, they are habits.
Often, nobody is tasked with checking these things, so I would definitely recommend having someone (it could be your student eco-team) do a walkaround occasionally with a checklist. The checklist is important because when you’re in a building all day every day, you don’t necessarily notice these things or see it as your responsibility or a priority to deal with it.
More generally, eco-teams and pupils can make a big difference…as long as the next step is in place. For example, if they speak to facilities teams and catering teams about opportunities to save energy, those teams then need to either enact the change or explain why it’s not possible. When things are set up this way, eco-teams stay motivated and can make a big difference – especially when these energy saving discussions or activities are carried out reasonably regularly.
One other thing I’d like to mention is that some things that are used in schools aren’t actually optimised for this environment (e.g. lighting with sensors don’t always work optimally in certain school areas due to high levels of movement). So having a manual override – and empowering staff to use this (e.g. on sunny days) is important. This is something I feel we can all learn from as new schools are designed and buildings are upgraded.
One of your schools – Oasis Academy Enfield – won our scoreboard competition last year, and has been sitting at the top of our leaderboard for most of this year. 10-15 of your academies are fairly active on our leaderboard. What can you tell us about this?
We talk about the leaderboard in our eco-champion meetings, which happen every half term. We also have a main sustainability theme per term – so, for us, spring term focuses on being climate considerate; that means that the two meetings this term will promote action using Energy Sparks and the scoreboard.
Also, we find that some academies just naturally pick it up and run with it.
There’s not necessarily rivalry within the trust – schools probably feel more competitive towards other schools in their local area, so the regional leaderboards can be helpful.
At Oasis Academy Enfield specifically, they have a very motivated and inspiring member of staff – Ms Silva – and they also find the points system very motivating.
Overall, I’d say whether or not schools engage is very dependent on the schools themselves. But we always encourage our academies to log any activities they have done, and this can create a snowball effect in terms of how they engage with energy saving.
Occasionally we also offer internal incentives within Oasis – e.g. promoting the academy that has shown the most improvement, so we are still recognising engagement, even if they haven’t reached the top.
Are there any policy changes that you have made in the last few years to support reduction in energy consumption?
One big change Oasis made was during the energy crisis, when the trust did a lot of communication about adjusting classroom temperatures to 18 degrees‡ – and that is now our recommended classroom temperature across the trust.
Additionally, working together with our IT team, we now say that server rooms can be kept at 21 degrees‡ (some were previously cooled to as low as 16 degrees!).
We have a trust-wide climate action plan (CAP) in place as well as individual academy CAPs, and many of our academies also have a heat decarbonisation plan too. In the longer term we are looking at building on this by developing a trust-wide strategy focused specifically on energy and carbon.
But, beyond this, I think the savings we have made have less to do with policy changes, and more to do with fostering closer relationships with estates staff and others, and also building better relationships with our BMS contractors.
We know that you use Energy Sparks to prepare for academy visits. What sort of information are you looking for, and how does it inform your visits?
Firstly, I look at the overview charts to pick up some general patterns and trends (including successes). I then look at the out-of-hours analysis – I try to pick up, for example if weekend energy use is always the same as weekday use, and how our academies are doing over the holidays – sometimes we find that a school will have a really good summer holiday for energy saving, but then have a terrible October half term.
Talking about heating with school staff is most effective when we’re talking about recent data – so I also try to pick up the most recent examples.
Having all of this to hand means that when I get to the school we can answer questions and identify issues.
![Image shows a text panel that highlights a key quote from the paragraph above ("Having all of this [information] to hand means that when I get to the school we can answer questions and identify issues.)](https://blog.energysparks.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Jessica-Marshall-quote-8-1024x121.png)
In my preparation, I also make use of Energy Sparks advice from the analysis pages, as this can help us to focus on the most effective solutions, when problems are identified.
Has Energy Sparks helped you to find any problems or issues in any of your academies?
Yes, it continuously does (and even when problems are ‘solved’, things can revert back at any point). So Energy Sparks is great for picking up on the problems and working out the timings for when things might be going wrong.
One thing that is worth mentioning is that many Oasis academies have community use. Historically, these users weren’t being charged any energy-related rent – this particularly came to light during the energy crisis as it was apparent that the extra costs were not being passed on appropriately.
What Energy Sparks is great for is helping schools identify the energy costs associated with community use, and allowing us to pass on costs appropriately – and to do this in quite a smart way.
For example, after looking at the data, I suggested that we shouldn’t charge community users for our electricity baseload, because we know that is an issue that we need to solve within Oasis. Instead we’d look to charge them for the additional electricity cost over and above our usual baseload. This allows us to recoup our costs but also to charge our users fairly.
Have you used the new group dashboard much? Do you have any thoughts on the changes we have made? Which Energy Sparks features do you tend to use the most?
Although I haven’t had a chance to use it much yet, I do feel like it will be really useful and I’m looking forward to getting started with it. In particular, as someone working at the trust level, I like that I’ll be able to see the instant comparison between schools rather than having to look at the data for each academy individually. I can see this being especially useful after school holidays, as it will allow us to prioritise who to speak to, and where to dig for more detail.
One of the frustrations in my role is dealing with metering issues at our academies, which is very time consuming and should be easier. One of the new features on the group dashboard will really help with this, because it will allow us to see which utilities schools have connected up to Energy Sparks, and which still haven’t been connected. The Energy Sparks team – particularly our account manager – have also been great in helping us to identify when meters aren’t working, which has been a real bonus.
Once all meters are connected, the per pupil and per m2 parts of the dashboard will become incredibly useful for identifying which academies should be prioritised for support or investment.
Want to learn more?
We are so grateful to Jessica for taking the time to share her experiences and expertise.
If you would like to learn more about how Energy Sparks can help your Multi-Academy Trust, we invite you to watch a demo.
If your trust already has Energy Sparks and you would like advice and support on how to improve school engagement, your account manager would love to hear from you. If you’re not sure who this is, you can contact support@energysparks.uk and we will put you in touch with the right person.
Notes from the editor:
* Based on current tariffs.
† xx% of Oasis academies with enough gas data to make a comparison
‡ This is in line with the DfE’s energy efficiency guidance.
