Berkhamsted School

The Challenge

Berkhamsted is a family of leading independent schools based in Hertfordshire, offering high quality education and care for both boys and girls aged five months to 18 years. The school was founded in 1541 by the Dean of St Pauls Cathedral. When we were contacted by the Vice Principal of Business Operations at Berkhamsted we were originally commissioned to look into the schools cleaning and photocopying expenditure. Since then, we have been helping the team look into Green Efficiencies in order to reduce its carbon footprint.

Our Solution

First, we looked at the current practises at Berkhamsted to highlight what areas could be improved. After identifying that the schools photocopying contract had an unreasonably large profit margin for the supplier, and was quite costly in relation to the service, we negotiated Berkhamsted out of its current contract and provided a new contract with more transparency and a better level of service.

The Cost Reduction Company organised an audit of the current cleaning expenditure. We looked at cost, compliance and procurement practice at the school.

To improve the companies Green Efficiencies, we recommended a number of carbon reduction projects. This included looking at waste management, new systems and behaviour changes. The main change we made was the installation of a photovoltaic system.

“Advice and industry expertise has helped us in many ways – to reduce cost, to become more efficient, to introduce green initiatives and sometimes to get independent confirmation that we are already conforming to best practice”.

The Vice Principle of Business Operations at Berkhamsted School

Our Tactics

• Audit of cleaning expenditure and procurement practices
• New photocopying/printing methods and contract negotiation
• Current contract reviews and negotiation of new ones where needed

Our Highlights