becoming a sustainable school [your school name] [your name]

Becoming A Sustainable School

[Your School Name][Your Name]

• What is Sustainable Development?

• Why Sustainable Schools?

• What is a Sustainable School?

• How can we be a Sustainable School?

• My proposal for moving forwards…

2© 2010 LSx Sustainable Schools Governor Toolkit

What is Sustainable Development?What is Sustainable Development?

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• Climate change and global warming are happening: the consequences challenge the future peace and prosperity of all of us on the planet.

• Sustainable Development (SD) is a way of thinking about how we can respond to this challenge.

• The UK government’s Sustainable Development Strategy ‘Securing The Future’ has defined its own approach to SD as a long term commitment to enabling:

• ‘all people throughout the world to satisfy their basic needs and enjoy a better quality of life without compromising the quality of life of future generations.’

© 2010 LSx Sustainable Schools Governor Toolkit

Why Sustainable Schools?Why Sustainable Schools?

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• It is our children and our young people who have the greatest stake in the future.

• Schools are learning communities at the heart of our villages, towns and cities: they can become models of a shared commitment to sustainability, developing and preparing our future citizens.

• Based upon its wider vision for strategic sustainable development, the Government would like every school to be a sustainable school by 2020.

• To guide us, it has formulated a National Framework for Sustainable Schools which comprises the following elements…


What is a Sustainable School?What is a Sustainable School?

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1. A Commitment to Care

• Care for yourself - as a fundamental foundation

• Care for each other - across cultures, distances and generations

• Care for the environment- the near and the far



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2. An Integrated Approach

• Curriculum- using sustainability to stimulate our teaching and our learning, making learning more ‘real’

• Campus - adopting sustainability in our values and our ways of working in all aspects of our school

• Community- extending sustainability in to our wider partnerships with parents and carers, suppliers and local organisations



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3. Eight interconnecting national ‘doorway’ sustainability themes

1. Food & Drink – e.g. eating locally sourced food

2. Energy & Water – e.g. using renewable energy

3. Travel & Traffic – e.g. walking / cycling to school

4. Purchasing & Waste – e.g. reducing and reusing

5. Buildings & Grounds – e.g. new cultivation areas

6. Inclusion & Participation – e.g. valuing diversity

7. Local Well-being – e.g. engaging with local projects

8. Global Dimension – e.g. understanding local choice & global impacts



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4. Reduce Carbon Emissions in Four Key Areas

• Energy use in old and new school buildings

• Travel and transport for pupils & staff

• Supply chain activities of our suppliers

• Waste management & minimisation



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CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme

The new Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) Energy Efficiency Scheme requires every local authority to join a mandatory carbon emissions trading scheme which has real financial implications for all schools:

• Our local authority could reduce the school budget if schools do not make sufficient carbon reductions.

• Our local authority could increase the school budget if schools make sufficient carbon reductions.

• Unless all schools collaborate to reduce their individual carbon footprints, the total budget share is at risk of reduction.


How Can We Be A Sustainable School?How Can We Be A

Sustainable School?


• Governors have a key strategic role to play in steering our school towards sustainability.

• With the LSx Governor Toolkit we have a model process we can follow that will help us to drive change over a 3 – 5 year period

• There are three stages to this annual process

Stage 1Engagement

• Shared vision: Deciding what sustainability means for all of us at our school

• Where are we now? Reviewing where we already develop sustainability in our curriculum, campus and community

• Who will lead? Creating a team of governor & staff ‘Sustainability Champions’

Stage 2Planning

• Where do we want to be? Deciding on our sustainability goals and the time we need to meet them realistically

• Creating an Action Plan which is given appropriate resources and clearly identifies roles and responsibilities

• Updating the School Development Plan incorporating our annual sustainability goals

Stage 3Implementation & Review

• Following the Plan

• Reports to Governors on milestone stages achieved

• Updating the SEF: accurately self-evaluating against Ofsted sustainability ‘outstanding’ criteria

• Comparing progress made with our sustainability vision: returning to stage 1 of the process for the next year

• Sustainable Development is a key national strategy aimed at guiding us all to think and act in ways which will protect the interests of future generations

• The Government wants all schools to be sustainable by 2020

• A ‘sustainable school’ is one with a wide ethos of care, which takes an integrated approach to sustainability through its curriculum, campus and community and approaches it through eight intertwining ‘doorways’ or national sustainable themes and systematically reduces its carbon footprint

• We can become a sustainable school by committing to a process of engagement, planning and review.


ProposalProposal

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‘Being a sustainable school is a long-term project’ – Jake Reynolds, DCSF Senior Advisor, Sustainable Development (2009)

• To support the school I would like to propose that I assume the role of ‘Governor Sustainability Champion’

• I also propose a ‘next steps for sustainability meeting’ with the Headteacher - and any other governors who would like to attend - with the purpose of deciding:1. which activities in the ‘Engagement’ process shall we adopt?

2. where and when shall we schedule these activities?

• Thank you for listening!


becoming a sustainable school [your school name] [your name]

Documents

sustainable development

school community

new school buildings

future generations

energy water

renewable energy

future peace

generations care