Environment & Sustainability

Area 1: Leadership (staff and students)

Aims:

To establish staff and student structures to lead and manage this action plan

Objectives

Staff steering group

• Establish a staff working group to lead and manage the above programme; meeting monthly / half-termly
• Publish a regularly updated blog promoting the actions of the working group and sharing sustainability tips with staff
• Publish a regularly updated page on the school website sharing the actions of the working group and student environmental Leadership Team

Student Environmental Leadership Team

• Establish a student environmental leadership group to support the above programme
• To successfully apply to become an ‘Eco School’.

Area 2: Education and curriculum

Aims:

To ensure that the climate emergency is taught in a cross-curricular manner throughout all key stages

Objectives

Curriculum audit

• Audit where climate change is currently taught across all subject areas

Curriculum development

• Explore links to climate change, environment & sustainability across all subject areas.
• Introduce project-based learning to develop education for sustainability as a cross-curricular priority.

Assembly / tutor-time programme

• Ensure climate change, sustainability and environmental issues are regularly addressed through the assembly, tutor-time and Enrichment Day programme

Area 3: Energy and energy use

Aims:

To reduce the energy consumption of the school

To increase the proportion of energy used from lower-carbon sources

Objectives

Buildings

• Replace single-glazed windows on Cambridge Science block through a successful CIF funding bid
• Replace single-glazed windows on Bury main block through a successful CIF funding bid
• Where possible, improve the roof and wall insulation of school buildings
• Consider arranging for Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) for all school building to be produced and updated

Lighting and Electrical / electronic devices

• Ensure all new or updating lighting is low-energy and/or motion-sensitive Move to having most computers auto-switch-off at 5.30pm, saving 15 hours of standby electricity per PC
• Check all air-conditioning is off overnight / or fit timers for this to happen automatically
• Remove and recycle unnecessary / outdated electronic devices

Heating and hot water

• Reduce costs, gas usage and carbon footprint of heating the school premises and providing hot water

Energy generation

• Research the possibility of installing solar panels and/or small-scale wind turbines

Energy purchasing

• Research the feasibility of purchasing energy from renewable suppliers
• Ensure energy consumption is monitored monthly and yearly to assess impact of the actions above

Area 4: Food, drink and canteen provision

Aims:

To reduce the amount of food with a high carbon footprint consumed in the school

To reduce the amount of over-processed food consumed in the school

To increase the proportion of food consumed in the canteen that is locally sourced or produced

Objectives

Canteen menus

• Establish ‘meat-free Mondays’
• Increase the proportion of vegetarian and vegan options
• Reduce the amount of processed and relatively unhealthy snacks available

Sourcing of food and ingredients

• Canteen catering company dining to review suppliers to maximise the amount of local produce used in the canteen
• Use the produce of the school’s ‘market garden’ / allotment in the canteen

Area 5: Purchasing and consumable resources

Aims:

• Reduce the amount of photocopying and printing
• Reduce the amount of plastic resources consumed by the school

Objectives

Photocopying and printing

• Develop a ‘paperless school’ approach to further reduce the amount of paper and toner consumed for printing and photocopying using the printing account system and controls on PCs.

Review purchasing policy so that:

• We purchase environmentally friendly, fairly traded products where possible
• Reduce the use of laminating for indoor display items – replace with shiny card
• Stop ordering plastic covers for exercise books and textbooks
• Other single-use plastics are no longer purchased
• We use more ‘eco-friendly’ cleaning materials where possible

Area 6: Waste and recycling

Aims:

To take the ‘5Rs’ approach of ‘Remove; Reduce; Reuse; Repair; Recycle’

To reduce the amount of packaging used by the school, in particular single-use plastics

To reduce the amount of waste produced by the school

To increase the proportion of waste that is recycled

Objectives

Remove and reduce single-use plastics in the canteen

• In the canteen, the amount of non-recyclable / single-use plastic waste is reduced, in particular:

        - Drinks in plastic bottles should be phased out, with only drinks in cans and cartons sold

        - All packaging for sandwiches needs to be fully recyclable

        - No plastic cutlery should be provided – this may mean purchasing additional metal cutlery; ideally, we should avoid                  disposable wooden cutlery too

        - Shrink-wrap plastic packaging, particularly on individual biscuits, etc to be phased out

• Disposable plastic cups for staff to be phased out

Reduce the amount of single-use plastic brought into school

• Water coolers for students installed in canteens
• Staff and students increasingly bring re-usable bottles to school and refill from new water coolers
• Encourage students not to bring energy drinks into school

Recycling programme

• All classrooms and offices to have clearly marked recycle bins, with labels showing what can and cannot be recycled

       - Tutor groups to have recycling monitors, who will ensure bins are being used appropriately

       - Each member of staff to be responsible for use of the bins in their classroom / office

• Bottle and can recycling bins are made available in the canteen and near the food cubes
• The school to join recycling schemes for other items, such as batteries and stationery
• Existing schemes for recycling printer and photocopier toners maintained
• The number of wheelie bins increased to manage the potential increase in the amount of recyclable waste

Area 7: School grounds

Aims:

To make best of use of the school grounds to reduce the school’s carbon footprint and promote constructive responses to the climate emergency

Objectives

Tree planting programme

• Increase the number of trees on the school grounds

Allotment Project

• To allocate areas of the school grounds to the growing of fruit and vegetables by developing allotment / ‘market garden’ areas on each campus
• Use these areas as a teaching and learning resource

Wildlife areas

• Encourage wildlife on to the site by leaving some areas of the grounds to ‘grow wild’
• Use these areas as a teaching and learning resource

Area 8: Transport and travel

Aims:

To reduce the number of journeys to and from school that use methods of transport with high carbon-footprints

Objectives

Cars

• Install 6 electric car charging points in car parks across both campuses
• Promote car-sharing – set up a car-sharing system for staff

Walking and cycling

• Update our school travel plan – primary and secondary
• Promote ‘active travel’ walking and cycling to school programmes for students including ‘Walk on Wednesdays (WoW)’ and Bikeability training schemes
• Promote cycling to school for staff, including the cycle purchase scheme, including electric bikes
• Look into the feasibility of providing bicycles for staff to borrow use to travel between campuses

Minibuses

• When it is time to do so, replace minibuses with electric equivalents