Sustainability

At Greentrees, we recognise we are in a climate emergency and are taking a wide variety of steps to combat this. Pickwick Academy Trust has a sustainability strategy to decarbonise the school estate and build in resilience to threats such as heatwaves and floods. We employ many sustainable practices and have embedded environmentalism into our curriculum so that children across the school learn about many aspects of the human impacts on planet Earth, and how we can reduce the damage we’re doing. We focus on the changes we can make that make the biggest positive difference. These are known as the Big Impact Actions. Icons and wording for these actions are stuck into our Enquiry books so we can keep referring back to them throughout the year when our Enquiry topics relate to them. We also have assemblies and displays about the Big Impact Actions. We know that the Speak Up action is an important one – hence the bigger icon – because we need to spread information and change habits beyond just our school.

Big Impact Actions to save the planet:

Consume less & Waste less – overarching themes that flow throughout all sustainability work. Includes consuming less water and energy, as well as purchases. Waste less includes repairing, reusing, rehoming, recycling etc.

Drive less & fly less – choose public transport ahead of cars and air travel, but the best way to get around is active travel; walking, running, cycling etc.

Reduce meat and dairy – choosing the right type of food makes a much bigger difference than easting seasonally or reducing food miles. Food from animals generally has a higher carbon footprint than food from plants, plus they use much more water and land, so plant-based foods are a more efficient way to feed humans. Doctors recommend increasing the proportion of plants in our diets in order to be healthy.

Have smaller families– in richer countries, each new person has a relatively high carbon footprint, so having fewer children is kindest to the planet.

Speak Up – individuals need to make changes to their own lives, but greater, more rapid change can be achieved by creating ripples, encouraging others to follow suit and demanding change from businesses and governments.

Learn more by listening to New Year Solutions:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m0001t9x

Biodiversity

We also recognise that we are in a biodiversity crisis. In response to this we encourage children to learn about, care about and protect nature. We have audited our curriculum to ensure there are numerous opportunities for children to study, admire and take care of nature during their time at school, both in lessons and in extracurricular activities such as via the Eco Council, Eco Club and at Gardening Club.