Top tips for sustainability in schools

Top tips for sustainability in schools

We’re all aware of the huge focus on sustainability, climate change, and the environment; making some small changes could make a big difference in your school, your community and beyond. World Environment Day 2021 is encouraging us all to get involved with activities such as clear-up campaigns, tree planting, or rewilding our gardens.

We’ve pulled together some tips for a more sustainable school: 

Encourage pupils to walk

Hit the pavement to reduce your carbon footprint! Look at introducing “walking buses” to encourage children to make the journey to school together, enjoy the fresh air and help to cut carbon emissions

A green school office

It’s not only in the classrooms where we should be focusing on going green. Can you cut down on the paper you use in the school office by keeping electronic copies instead of printing things out? Do you switch off your monitor when it’s not in use? Little habits all add up to a big change.

Recycle

This may seem like an obvious one, but are we all doing it and doing it regularly? Sort your rubbish and place recycling bins in the playground. Soon it will be second nature for children to throw their apple core into the food waste and their scraps of paper into the recycling. 

At one with nature

Is there a space in the school grounds which could be used for growing vegetables? Or if space is limited, maybe start a class wormery or grow your seeds in pots in the classroom. It would be great for pupils to get involved in growing their own veg or plants from seed.

Upcycle – get crafty!

Alongside the focus on recycling, let’s also focus on upcycling! Time for students to get creative and crafty; perhaps bring in old or broken objects from home and turn them into a new creation!

Be energy efficient

At the end of each day, turn off the lights and shut down the computers; don’t leave your monitors on standby. During the winter months, keep the doors shut to stop heat escaping and keep the energy consumption lower. If you’re having to purchase new appliances for the school, be sure to check the energy consumption before buying the new one

Lessons in sustainable living

Sustainability learning shouldn’t be restricted to one lesson; there are multiple subjects that can involve environmental learning. You could calculate your reduction in carbon footprint from walking to school, measure rainfall, learn about food miles or landfill. Why not use those homegrown vegetables in the next cookery lesson?

Get involved in the community

We all want to take care of the world around us, and that’s what being ‘green’ is all about; so, spread the word and get the local community involved – organise a tree planting day, a park or beach clean, or do a spot of fundraising to help a local wildlife or nature group.