How can schools become sustainable?

There are two main ways that schools can become more sustainable. The first is by directly implementing measures that improve the sustainability of their operations. These can also help to lower costs. The second is by educating pupils (and their families) on sustainability. Here is a list of suggestions you could implement.

Sustainable transportation

Promoting sustainable transportation generally helps to promote health and safety as well. Many schools will be only too familiar with the problems caused by parents driving their children to school and dropping them at the gates. Many schools will also be only too familiar with the fact that preventing this can be a significant challenge.

Just asking parents to use alternative forms of transport is unlikely to work. This is because most parents are probably driving their children to school because there is no alternative. More specifically, there is no alternative that they consider to be both safe and practical.

This means that schools are likely to need to look more closely at the problem. First, they understand the root causes of it in their specific area. Then they need to address them. Then they need to promote the alternative to parents. For example, schools could offer to support car-pooling and/or provide supervised, private transport (e.g., school buses).

If you want to encourage children to cycle, then you need to ensure that there is somewhere safe for them to leave their bicycles while they are at school. Once this is in place, you can then look at ways to improve safety on their journeys to and from school. For example, you could organise for pupils to be given lessons on road safety for cyclists.

Waste management

Schools tend to be places where a lot of waste is generated. This means that reducing, reusing and recycling can make a huge difference to a school’s sustainability.

Reducing waste

In most schools, the three key areas to target are single-use products, paper and packaging. Most single-use products in schools are likely to be used in food and drink consumption. You should therefore try to reduce the sale/provision of such items by the school itself. You should also try to encourage pupils and parents to use alternatives.

Many schools have already reduced their official paper usage by switching to a digital-first approach to organisation and management. The issue is likely to be unofficial usage, in other words, paper used by staff and students.

It’s likely to be impractical to ban staff completely from using printouts when they could just have read the information on a screen. You could, however, monitor printing activity and bill it directly to individual departments’ budgets. This could encourage staff to think before they print. You could also apply policies on how written work should be presented. For example, you could require pupils to use single-line spacing and write on both sides of the page.

Controlling packaging comes down to managing your ordering and managing your suppliers. This should be largely within the control of the school administration.

Reusing and recycling

There’s unlikely to be much scope for reusing items in schools. With that said, there are a couple of interesting possibilities. One is to implement composting for food waste. The other is to encourage swaps within the school. For example, many schools have schemes where parents can donate school uniform items that their children have grown out of.

If you have the resources, you might even want to try extending this to running a not-for-profit store on the school premises. This would improve sustainability by encouraging people to donate items they might otherwise have just thrown out. It can also raise funds for the school and teach pupils about business.

Schools should also aim to implement an effective recycling program. For this program to be effective, however, it will need to have the buy-in of as many people as possible. This means explaining to pupils and staff why the rules are important as well as what they are.

Energy efficiency

Measures for improving energy efficiency in schools are often very similar to measures for improving energy efficiency in homes and commercial buildings. Here are some of the points you might want to consider.

Insulation: Insulation is arguably the starting point for any sort of energy efficiency. If your local authority can afford to fix it, find out how much they can afford to pay. Then try fundraising for the rest.

Smart climate control: In the UK, climate control generally means heating. It can, however, also mean ventilation and/or air conditioning (HVAC). Whatever climate control you have, it’s preferable if it’s a smart system. Smart systems really do ensure you use the minimum amount of energy to achieve your goal. They can therefore significantly reduce your bills.

Energy-efficient lighting: If you’re still using traditional incandescent light bulbs, replace them with energy-efficient LED lights. Consider adding motion sensors in areas such as bathrooms to ensure that lights are only on when they’re actually needed.

Energy-efficient appliances: Most schools will have several TVs and DVD players. They are also likely to use appliances such as cookers, microwaves, fridges, and freezers. When replacing these, buy the most energy-efficient options you can afford.

Technology management: Technology has brought huge benefits to education, but it’s also brought significant electricity bills. Work with your IT team to ensure that all devices are switched off when they are not being used, particularly overnight. This will also improve your IT security.

Water conservation

Never rely on pupils (or staff) to remember to turn off taps. If your budget isn’t up to smart taps (with motion sensors), non-concussive taps are a budget-friendly alternative. You might know non-concussive taps as self-closing taps, auto turn-off taps, or push button taps.

Essentially, non-concussive taps are taps that shut off the flow automatically after a certain time. If you want the flow to continue, you have to keep pressing them. This is, however, unlikely to be necessary for standard handwashing.

Sustainable procurement

If you really want to be as sustainable as possible, you will need to look at your procurement process. This is likely to be tricky for many schools due to budget constraints. It is, however, always worth checking from time to time. There may be ways you can improve sustainability that are within your budget.

Author Bio

Sarah Vernau is the Marketing Manager at Flame UK, who is an innovative leader in cost containment and the management of all Waste, Energy, and Water consuming businesses.