Energy Sparks Watch video

Transform your school into an energy-saving powerhouse using smart meter data, tailored recommendations, and engaging pupil activities that cut costs by 10-40% while empowering students to tackle climate change through hands-on action.

Energy Sparks turns schools into climate action hubs by transforming complex energy data into student-friendly insights that drive real savings and environmental impact.

This initiative tackles the hidden problem of energy waste in schools—where approximately 60% of energy is used outside teaching hours and heating systems often run unnecessarily during holidays and weekends.

Energy Spar...

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Energy Sparks turns schools into climate action hubs by transforming complex energy data into student-friendly insights that drive real s...

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Join the communities already benefitting from starting a Energy Sparks

You'll get guides and resources on how to bring this idea to life.

There is no funding available for this idea in Ireland, but these resources will still help to make your project happen!

Not in Ireland? Change your region
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“The weekly alerts and data access provided by Energy Sparks are excellent for identifying small changes that can lead to significant improvements in our energy efficiency. The activities are fantastic for the children, offering them a real sense ...

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Head Teacher at Richard Wakefield CE Primary Academy
Affinity Learning Partnership

How to start a project on ChangeX

  • 1

    Create your project page

    Click the green start button to register and set up your project page. It’s quick, free and easy.

  • 2

    Complete a 30 Day Challenge

    Complete simple steps in 30 days to get your project off the ground.

  • 3

    Activate your project

    Follow the 5 Step Guide and your action plan to bring the project to life.

  • 4

    Share impact

    Share impact by posting a summary and photos and completing a survey.

Great for

  • Someone who wants to reduce their school's energy costs and carbon footprint
  • Someone who wants pupils to develop practical climate action skills
  • Someone who values data-driven decision-making and community engagement
  • Someone who can champion the initiative as an Energy Sparks coordinator in their school
  • Someone who wants to develop an impactful climate action plan for their school

Energy Sparks project essentials

5 Step Guide

  • Enrol and Set Up
  • Analyse Your Baseline
  • Launch Student Engagement
  • Implement Recommendations
  • Sustain and Scale

Time

Suggested: 1 hour weekly for the school champion, plus extra-curricular or curriculum time for pupil activities over the school year. Most schools use Energy Sparks to support pupil eco-teams.

Resources

More information on how to get started and any resources shared by the Energy Sparks

Meet the Social Innovator

Welcome to Energy Sparks, and thank you for joining our programme.

We are delighted to be working with your school. By signing up to Energy Sparks, you are taking a positive and practical step to better understand your energy use, reduce costs, and engage pupils, staff and governors in meaningful action on energy efficiency and climate change.

Our aim is to support schools with clear insights, trusted data and engaging resources that make managing energy simpler and more impactful. Whether your focus is reducing consumption, saving money, supporting learning, or strengthening your school’s climate action work, we hope Energy Sparks will become a valuable part of your day-to-day operations.

Our team is here to support you as you get started and beyond. We look forward to working with you and seeing the progress your school makes over the coming months.

Thank you for being part of the Energy Sparks community.

Claudia Towner, CEO of Energy Sparks

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Why a 30 day challenge?

    The 30 Day Challenge was developed by our Team based on our experience working with communities. We’ve learned that the first weeks are critical to build momentum and get off to a good start with any community project. Teams who complete these steps within the first month are much more likely to successfully complete their project!

    The Challenge is a series of simple steps that each applicant has to complete to get their project off the ground and unlock funding, if there is funding currently available for that idea in your region. Steps include watching a video and/or reading content, telling us more about your project, forming a team so that you have support, having your first team meeting, sharing a team photo, and sharing a project action plan.

  • What can funding be used for?

    Once funding is received it can be used to cover direct set-up costs of the new community project. For example space rental, insurance fees, seeds and planting materials, tools, training fees; pretty much any materials you might need for a project that benefits your community.

    Funds cannot be used for the costs of work that has already been carried out, costs unrelated to the setup and maintenance of the new project, payments to group members for their work on the project. Funds can’t be used for the promotion of religious causes, non-charitable activities, sponsorship or fundraising events. Please read the terms and conditions for further details.

  • How do I know if there is funding available?

    On idea pages, if there is funding available for the idea in your region you will see “Funding available” and the region listed in the turquoise box. When you first login you will also see a green banner at the top of the screen saying “live funds near you” if there is funding available in your region. The ChangeX homepage will feature those live funds near you.

    A note on the waitlist: when all the funding has been allocated to applicants, new applicants will go on a waitlist. If some applicants that are in the fund don’t successfully complete the 30 Day Challenge their funding will be released and can be then allocated to those on the waitlist. To see if you are going on a waitlist check the main fund page, ideas fully allocated will have the note “Join the waitlist” instead of “Apply to start”.

  • What is ChangeX?

    ChangeX is a platform that connects communities to proven ideas and funding.

    By empowering local changemakers with proven ideas from social innovators and accessible funding from our partners, we aim to build healthier, more inclusive and sustainable communities. Our work is aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and together with our partners, we aim to impact 1 billion people globally by 2030.

    • Communities: Get the funding, resources and support you need to start impactful projects in your community.
    • Social innovators: Connect with local changemakers, access funding to scale your idea, and impact more communities globally.
    • Funders: Fund the themes and regions they care most about, with measurable impact, and at global scale.

    We believe that by bringing the best social innovations and the world’s changemakers together in a shared community, we can accelerate the spread of innovations across the world and have a bigger impact. Together we aim to unleash the potential of changemakers by enabling collaboration, by sharing knowledge and resources, by connecting changemakers across different disciplines and innovations and by opening up access to the world’s best proven social innovations to everyone.

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