‘Working towards net zero’

Pendle Education Trust has been working hard to improve sustainability across our five schools.

All of our schools use a lot of energy and we realise the importance of educating our students, staff and the wider community on the benefits of reducing our carbon footprint.

Key members of staff have already met to discuss our current position and map out the future, both from an environmental and financial viewpoint.

The meetings were focused on evaluating baseline energy, water, waste usage, travel, food, procurement, school grounds and what is offered through the curriculum.

The findings revealed that the Trust is already doing a lot to help with sustainability, but there were plenty of ways to improve and introduce new schemes too.

Solar panels are currently being used within our schools, as well as energy-efficient LED lighting, PIR sensors, energy-efficient boilers, urinal sensors, eco taps and showers. The Estates Manager is also working with a company to produce a carbon footprint report that will give us, the PET, a baseline to work to and improve year on year.

Our IT team have an automatic PC shutdown each evening, as well having introduced recycling of old electronic equipment, digital-only teaching days and a plan to move to heat-free technology photocopiers across our sites.

To reduce waste our schools have moved to paperless meetings, introduced e-letters sent home, installed recycling bins around school, as well as having branded water bottles to reduce the amount of single use plastic.

Staff have a cycle-to-work scheme that allows them to purchase a bike to get to and from work. This scheme not only supports staff with health and wellbeing, but is better for the environment with fewer employees driving to work each day. The school grounds have purpose-built bike sheds for staff and students to use to help support the cycle-to-work scheme.

The discussion group met with the company Taylor Shaw, who provide school lunches across all our sites. They revealed sustainability was high on their agenda as well and they have already moved to using biodegradable containers. Their fruit and vegetables are sourced locally and they have introduced meat-free Mondays and have no plastic straws or cutlery.

PET schools are mostly in rural areas our school grounds, so are therefore perfect sites for outdoor classrooms, garden clubs, growing areas and offer space for tree planting.

Over the next few months will put steps in place to fulfil our new PET promise, which will include aligning our organisational culture with a vision for sustainability, staff training linking our teaching and lessons to ensure students are educated in all subjects on the 17 sustainable development goals, and attaching these to our curriculum offer.

We will be monitoring our waste and energy, setting each school targets to improve, promoting sustainability initiatives across the trust including walk and cycle to school schemes, and recycling week.

We will ask the students to get involved by setting up ‘green teams’ in all our schools with the focus of education and action. And we aim to work with our local communities to partner with existing eco groups, looking at our procurement process and how we can manage deliveries to our schools, whilst ensuring a sustainability approach to buying.

“We would like all of our staff and students to think about the planet and global warming in all that they do at home and in school,” said Jude Evetts, PET Strategic Marketing and Development Manager.

“We want to raise awareness across our communities to make a change, encouraging people to stop and think what they are buying, turning off electrical equipment when they are not using it, or even whether they recycle and re-use. It’s about thinking about the future of the next generation.

“Our students are so passionate about this and we want to listen to their ideas and support them to put their ideas into action."

For further information or if you have any greats to help improve sustainability, please contact jevetts@pendleeducationtrust.co.uk