Sustainability policies or strategies in schools can give clarity and help engage all the stakeholders. They will hopefully act as a backbone for broader decisions and investments for the senior leadership team. But the documents need to be sustainable themselves! The current issues are so complex, and changeable, it is difficult to come up with a document that has longevity.
It is tempting to keep the document simple to keep it effective but in this context it is important not to focus on one area, such as your school’s ‘carbon footprint’. It is more effective and ultimately makes more sense to your school community, if it incorporates all the areas below on some level. If some of them do not seem immediately relevant to your school then one benefit of creating this document would be to discuss how they could be addressed.
This holistic approach is bound to be more educational and improve the literacy around this topic for the school community.
AREAS TO COVER AND KEEP IN BALANCE: –
- Carbon Footprint by reducing energy consumption and then reducing waste by reusing.
- Nature based solutions to resolve climate change and mitigate the impact
- Boost biodiversity locally and supporting projects abroad in the face of 6th Great Mass Extinction
- Equity in our actions now and our country’s global impact in the past
- Diversity in our work to be inclusive and benefits from different view points
