With more than 40 schools, Ormiston Academies Trust is one of the largest multi-academy trusts in the UK. One of its key goals is to improve energy efficiency across its portfolio.
Barker was selected to assist in this project and worked alongside Ginger, the Trust’s energy broker, as part of the TEEAM Alliance.
Barker helped the trust by retrieving its consumption data and displaying this in our EO Portal energy dashboard, from which the Trust and schools could analyse school trends.
In November 2025, the consumption data revealed that multiple schools across the trust were consuming high levels of gas during the night. Barker recommended immediate action on this to avoid excessive expenditure during the ongoing winter season.
An investigation by the Regional Estates Manager at Brownhills identified that the school boilers were being left on at all times, and an intervention was made in early January 2026.
For the short term, the Regional Estates Manager instructed the school to activate the boiler system manually. which significantly reduced unnecessary gas usage and delivered a noticeable drop in consumption with no impact on day-to-day operations.
The existing boilers are scheduled for decommissioning and will be replaced with a modern, higher-efficiency boiler and control system, ensuring the school will benefit from improved performance and reduced energy demand.
Data comparisons already highlight the positive impact of these actions:
