Ele George, founder of Elevate and our former Collaboration Hub Manager for the Mayor of London’s Retrofit Accelerator – Homes Innovation Partnership, is a passionate advocate for innovative, sustainable and industrialised retrofit across the built environment.
In 2023, Ele organised an Energiesprong UK study tour to Europe where she visited the first school in France to be renovated to net zero standards as part of our Interreg Mustbe0 project.
Taking inspiration and learnings from this project and others in Germany, Ele authored a report for the Mustbe0 project outlining how the UK could take an industrialised approach to retrofitting schools and the myriad benefits that could bring to the millions of people using them.
Ele continues to make the case for an industrialised programme for upgrading schools, and in this blog outlines the opportunity for coming together to solve this ‘wicked problem’.
Across the UK, our school buildings are in a dire state. Crumbling concrete, asbestos risks, poor energy efficiency, and learning environments that hinder rather than help are among the many issues. It’s a classic wicked problem: a challenge so complex, interconnected, and deeply rooted that there’s no single, easy solution. But rather than chipping away at it with isolated fixes, we need systems thinking and a programmatic approach to tackle the issue at scale.
More than 24,000 school buildings are past their intended lifespan*. Of those, nearly 14,000 are “system-built” structures from the 1940s–1980s with many containing asbestos, suffering from deteriorating materials like RAAC, and failing to meet modern energy standards. This is not just about lack of maintenance; it’s a long-term systemic failure.
Current approaches are usually piecemeal upgrades, emergency repairs, or waiting for buildings to reach crisis point and then be demolished and rebuilt. An inefficient and expensive approach. The alternative? An industrialised retrofit programme that applies lessons from Europe to transform our school buildings into modern, energy-efficient, and inspiring spaces for learning.
Retrofitting schools at scale isn’t just about energy efficiency (though that’s a huge benefit). It’s about:
Health & well-being – Better air quality, natural materials, and biophilic design enhance learning and student outcomes.
Cost savings – Schools make up over half of government-owned buildings but receive the least funding per square metre. Retrofitting can cut long-term operational costs while avoiding disruptive, costly one-off fixes.
Sustainability – Demolishing and rebuilding isn’t the answer. Retrofitting reduces embodied carbon, helping meet net-zero goals without adding to landfill.
Learning in action – Schools become a model for sustainability, teaching students firsthand about energy efficiency and climate action.
France and Germany have already demonstrated the power of offsite, industrialised retrofit solutions. The Anne Godeau school in Raismes, France, was transformed from a money pit into the first zero-energy school in the country, using prefabricated wooden façade panels, heat pumps, and solar power. Inspired by this project, the City of Lille is retrofitting six schools using the Energiesprong approach, prioritising offsite construction so works can be completed in the three-month summer holidays. The ambitious project will renovate two schools each summer over three years.
Berlin has adopted similar methods, using offsite manufactured timber panels and decentralised ventilation systems to cut school energy use by 80%. These approaches prove that retrofit solutions can be rapid, scalable, and cost-effective when applied systematically.
Ironically, the UK has a long history of prefabricated school buildings, and yet, offsite construction companies haven’t seized the retrofit market in the way they could.
This is a huge untapped opportunity for manufacturers who already specialise in prefabrication. Instead of focusing solely on new builds, they should be developing retrofit kits tailored to the thousands of system-built schools across the UK. The supply chain is waiting, who is going to give it the push it needs?
The question isn’t just how we fix our schools, but who is stepping up to make it happen?
The evidence is clear: piecemeal repairs are unsustainable and costly, while systematic, industrialised retrofitting offers a long-term solution that benefits students, teachers, and the economy. It’s time for local authorities, policymakers, and the construction industry to come together and act boldly.
So, who’s stepping up?
Read the full report here:
If you’d be interested in learning more about inspirational examples from other countries, we can help facilitate knowledge sharing events and visits. Please get in touch! communications@energiesprong.uk
And you can sign-up for updates from the Energiesprong Global Alliance to hear about Energiesprong projects in Europe and beyond.
*Data: National Audit Office (NAO) report from June 2023, which estimated that 24,000 school buildings were beyond their initial design life, with 13,800 system-built structures from the 1940s–1980s being of particular concern. This aligns with data from the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) and the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) regarding asbestos risks in older schools.
Main image credit: Energiesprong France/Retrofitt
