Nurseries and primary schools are among the most significant energy consumers within the built environment, affecting both their operational budgets and the role of the education sector in the transition to net zero. Moreover, indoor air quality (IAQ) in these buildings plays a crucial role in determining the health, productivity, and wellbeing of students and staff. Poor IAQ and energy inefficiency in schools can contribute to adverse health effects and reduced academic performance, while also leading to high carbon emissions. The difficulty of maintaining high IAQ while simultaneously minimising energy consumption will soon become a pressing issue for educational institutions. Here, Dr Obuks Ejohwomu explores how the need for energy efficiency and superior air quality in schools can be balanced by smart technologies and renewable energy infrastructure.

• Children spend around 30% of their time in classrooms making IAQ an important consideration for educators who want to provide an optimal learning environment.
• Proper ventilation is essential for regulating IAQ and the thermal comfort of classrooms, however, it frequently results in increased energy usage.
• Policymakers can improve IAQ in educational settings by investing in smart technologies and renewable energy infrastructure, alongside the introduction of new standards for construction and air quality.

 What is air quality?

 Air quality refers to how clean the air is in a particular area. Understandably focus has previously been on outdoor air quality, but poor indoor air quality can also have an impact on our wellbeing, particularly when we spend much of our time indoors. Poor air quality can lead to breathing problems, reduced concentration, and delays in cognitive development. Children spend around 30% of their time in school, making good indoor air quality (IAQ) essential for their health and academic performance. Indoor environments, like schools, can accumulate much higher concentrations of pollutants – such as fine dust and carbon dioxide – than found outdoors, due to their release from building materials, classroom activities, and the use of cleaning products, which are then exacerbated by poor ventilation. Good indoor air quality helps to protect health, reduce sick days, boost learning, and support better overall school performance.

The age of many school buildings means that they are liable to suffer from poor insulation and inefficient heating systems. This leads to a lot of energy being expended on regulating heat, which – without smart controls – can cause inefficiencies. These outdated systems cannot adequately balance access to clean air and energy savings, often leading to poor air quality and higher bills. Existing approaches to energy management are often too rigid or simplistic to respond to the dynamic conditions found in real-world school settings.

Managing indoor air quality in schools

Research from The University of Manchester, in collaboration with academics from other contributing universities, found that factors such as classroom occupancy, outdoor weather conditions, and ventilation rates had significant impacts on IAQ. It also found that the use of smart technologies, like self-adjusting windows and AI powered HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) systems, in schools led to significant improvements in energy efficiency, IAQ and overall building performance. These improvements were due to the ability of the technologies to adapt in real time to fluctuating conditions such as occupancy and outdoor weather conditions. By having access to these tools, those responsible for our educational facilities are empowered to make decisions that ensure the health and comfort of students and teachers alike, while also reducing energy consumption and optimising building systems.

Further, the integration of AI-driven HVAC systems optimisation and renewable energy sources provides a holistic solution for educational buildings, offering significant improvements in energy efficiency, IAQ, and overall building performance. These innovations represent a significant step toward achieving long-term environmental and economic benefits in educational infrastructure – which could reduce school energy bills by more than 25%.

Improving indoor air quality in schools

Smart technology will not on its own address the problem fully and should be seen as one part of a policy roadmap to improving IAQ and energy efficiency, which also includes:

Funding for smart technology and renewable energy sources

Not all schools have the budget to install smart energy efficient technologies and renewable energy infrastructures into their schools. If the education sector is to play a role in the transition to net zero, then government will need to offer financial support for infrastructure like solar panels and self-adjusting windows. A start has already been made with Great British Energy having committed £80 million in funding towards the installation of solar panels at 200 schools in England. However, this will need to be expanded and accelerated throughout the country if it is to lead to meaningful efficiency changes across the sector. One way for the government to do this may be to introduce a new AI-HCV (AI-Enabled Health and Climate Ventilation) Pilot Fund through the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, prioritising areas of high deprivation where disease rates are highest.

Improved construction standards

If we are to meet our net zero commitments, then consideration must be given to the whole life cycles of our educational buildings and the environmental impact of the materials used to construct them. For the government this could mean mandating the use of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), implementing whole building life cycle assessments, and establishing project level carbon budgets for the construction of new schools. The clear targets and accountability framework embedded within this approach will ensure that environmental goals are balanced with the project’s economic considerations. It should also mean that components such as energy efficiency, operational costs, decarbonisation and the wellbeing of building users are considered in the buildings design.

Strengthened IAQ standards and regulations.

Our current regulations on IAQ are scattered across multiple directives covering workplace safety, building design, and product labelling, which can make compliance difficult. These regulations covering workplace safety, housing, and building ventilation do not hold specific limits for harmful pollutants like PM2.5 or volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Further, current regulations in the UK do not include IAQ standards specific to children, despite evidence that pollutants like PM2.5 and formaldehyde disproportionately harm their developing lungs and brains. While schools do follow World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines, they are not legally enforced. This leaves gaps in protection, especially for children.

To improve on current regulations the government could introduce a unified IAQ act which streamlines the rules, combining ventilation standards, material emissions (low-VOC paint requirements), and public health guidelines into a single framework. Centralised guidance, like the EU’s Construction Products Regulation, would simplify enforcement. The act could also set legal air quality limits for all buildings, requiring real-time monitoring in places like schools and hospitals, and updating ventilation rules to deal with modern risks such as pollutants released from cleaning products and building materials. In doing this, the government could look to mirror frameworks like the US EPA’s Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools program, which provides clear monitoring and mitigation strategies for educational settings.  The government could further support this by establishing an “IAQ-Energy Taskforce”, which could develop national standards for smart ventilation that underpin a UK regulation.