A new remote school in China provided with a solar power station and a green IT classroom

Following the successful project conducted in partnership with Maverlinn and Faurecia in 2014, the Rexel Foundation decided to support the energy transition of a new remote school in rural China.

Located 650 km south of the capital of the province of Henan, in a region with unreliable energy access, Shuikoumiao de Lijiazhai elementary school has 211 students between the ages of 6-12, as well as 12 teachers. The school is a veritable home away from home for these children, most of whom can only visit their families once per year.

The project, initiated by local Rexel teams in China and funded by the Rexel Foundation, aims to equip the school with a solar power station in order to provide electricity and hot water. This installation is both autonomous and environmentally friendly, and will improve the living and learning conditions of the school’s pupils.

The project also includes the creation of a green IT classroom connected to the Internet, which will give students the opportunity to acquire indispensable computer skills and discover the world. They will also be able to use it to communicate with their parents via video, thus adding a critical human dimension to the project.

Execution

The installation of the green IT classroom and its 20 refurbished computers will once again be handled by Netspring. This Chinese social enterprise supplies recycled computers to underprivileged students in remote rural areas. It thus contributes to fighting e-waste, which is extremely prevalent in China, where 5 million computers are discarded every year.

Netspring will also take care of training students and teachers to use computers via adapted pedagogical tools, in addition to maintaining the IT classroom throughout the duration of the project. The dismantling of recycled computers after 3 years of use will be handled by one of Netspring’s partners, a Chinese company with ISO9001 (quality) and ISO14001 (environment) certification.

The construction and maintenance of the solar and thermal power station have been entrusted to the company Kingsun Electrical.

For the opening ceremony, 15 employee volunteers from Rexel China came to the school for a one-day seminar, which provided the opportunity to discover the daily lives of the pupils and observe the benefits provided by this new equipment. Their presence, which was greatly appreciated by all, helped them to raise students’ awareness of renewable energy and sustainable development.

Goals

The project:

• Improves students’ learning conditions
• Improves the school’s comfort and health conditions
• Raises students’ awareness of renewable energy and sustainable development
• Lowers the school’s CO2 emissions through the installation of a solar power station
• Reduces e-waste through the use of refurbished computers
• Provides children with access to new information and communication technologies

Learn more about Netspring

Netspring is an innovative Chinese social enterprise that creates green IT classrooms in remote rural schools through the environmentally friendly recycling of computers provided by individuals and companies. Since 2012, Netspring has already created 65 green IT classrooms, used by 31,376 children, and has refurbished over 30 tons of e-waste.

This project is the follow-up to an initiative led in 2014 by the Rexel Foundation and Rexel China in partnership with Maverlinn and Faurecia for the modernization of an elementary school in the Hebei province.