A young volunteer who worked to make his school more environmentally friendly has been nominated for a London-wide award.
Muhammad Gangat, of Evelyn Road, Walthamstow, is nominated for the London Young People of the Year awards to be held at Queen Mary University later this year.
The 18-year-old was put forward by Julie Brand, deputy head of the sixth form at Ilford County High School, in Fremantle Road, Barkingside, which he attends.
She said: “Muhammad is the most helpful, conscientious, charitable and admirable young man.
“He is worthy of recognition for the work he does purely out of the goodness of his heart and his most humble way.”
Muhammad created a ‘green code’ for the Barkingside school and gave assemblies about the school community becoming more environmentally friendly, founding the Green Forum.
The school has now been awarded a silver Eco-Schools award.
Everyone in the school was encouraged to switch off lights and other electrical equipment at the end of the day.
Computers are now set to automatically switch off at 6pm if no one has turned them off before then.
The team met with the school’s site management to rethink boiler timings and met with Redbridge council to arranged for 70 recycling bins to be put in every classroom and school office.
Every class elected an ‘Eco Warrior’ to empty the recycling bins every week as well as ensuring their classmates follow the 'green code'.
Muhammad said: “The way we consume less energy and conserve heat is by instilling a very simple yet effective method into students and their discipline.
“By making students close windows and doors when the heating is on, so much less heat is needed to warm the building.”
“When a group of 30 students walk into a classroom, the room temperature, through the course of a lesson, goes up by at least five degrees.
“It's simple, but it needs someone to actually look into the timings and ask ‘do we need to have the boiler on for as long as this?’.
“We have also started to ensure that doors leading to the outdoors are closed regularly, to ensure that hot air doesn't escape.
“At our school we were very good at heating the great outdoors.”
The Green Forum at Ilford County High School in Barkingside.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here