Arup donated £4,000 to Hope Flowers School in Bethlehem, Palestine, to initiate a renewable energy and recycled water project at their campus. The money this saves could fund more scholarships and teachers.

Our staff will be volunteering on the initial phase of the project and a team are going on a site visit to the school in April 2015. During the visit, the team will complete a needs’ assessment for the school, which will be used to develop a feasibility report identifying the key opportunities for renewable energy and recycled water. They will also lead workshops with students to educate them about saving energy and water in their school and in their daily lives.

Hope Flowers provides education for children from kindergarten to age 14. It serves refugee and disadvantaged children in Palestine, and those traumatised by conflict or experiencing learning difficulties related to hardship. Initial estimates show the cost savings this project could achieve would be enough to provide 20 scholarships or pay the salaries of two teachers for a year.

We have extensive experience designing water systems for different uses and contexts; power supplies from locally available renewable energy sources; and mini-grids. Drawing on this knowledge, we’ll use our renewable energy planning and sustainability framework tools to recommend an appropriate, sustainable and reliable solution.

These tools are particularly valuable in this context as they consider, alongside technical design, wider factors like political climate, community engagement and training.