Our Sustainability Journey

Here at DangerPoint, we are committed to reducing our environmental impact while continuing to provide valuable services to our community. Sustainability is an ongoing journey, and we are continually looking for ways to operate more efficiently and responsibly.

Investing in Renewable Energy

One of our most significant sustainability projects has been the installation of:

38 solar photovoltaic (PV) panels and 5 battery storage units which have a total of 30kWh of battery storage capacity. This investment allows us to generate and store our own renewable electricity, helping to reduce our reliance on the grid and lower our carbon emissions.

By generating clean energy on-site and storing excess power for use when it is needed most, we are improving our energy resilience while reducing operating costs. In our first full year of generation, we saved over £5,000 on electricity costs and exported over £1,400 worth of electric. These savings can then be redirected to support our charitable objectives and the people we serve. To date, our carbon emissions have reduced by 39 tonnes.

Alongside our renewable energy investment, we have completed other steps to reduce our environmental impact:

• We reduced energy consumption throughout the centre by replacing all lighting to LED equivalents and replacing blown windows.
• We installed two energy efficient gas boilers replacing our old system. We do not have mains gas, so our choice of heating was limited.
• We have minimised waste and increased recycling.
• We have reduced paper usage through digital systems. One example is our teacher feedback forms; these are now completed on MS Forms.
• We make sure we purchase goods and services responsibly e.g. when our hand-held voting devices were due for renewal, we chose rechargeable devices rather than the previous battery versions. We made conscious decisions to choose the most energy efficient appliances when replacements were needed.
• We developed a new recycling game for our visitors whereby our character, K-os, needs the children’s help to collect and sort waste to power his rocket back home. This has been a tremendous success with the children and young people.
• Some schools requested more messages regarding climate change, so we developed a project called ‘ActionPoint’ to deliver climate change education for schools using the centre’s current scenarios.
• We encourage environmentally conscious practices among staff, children, and visitors.

Looking Ahead

We would also like to expand on our ‘ActionPoint’ project by having more bespoke climate change displays that help the children understand the issues we face and how they can help.

It is a challenge to achieve a suitable temperature in our glass reception area, shop, and the internet scenario as the roof and most of the walls are made of glass. We would like to install air source heat pumps for this area to make use of our solar generated power and make that area more comfortable all year round, it would provide heat in the winter and function as air conditioning in the summer.

We recognise that sustainability is a journey rather than a destination. Besides our current wish list, our future plans include continuing to monitor the performance of our solar and battery system, identifying further opportunities to reduce our environmental impact, and continuing to invest in solutions that benefit both our community and the environment.