Small Green Steps to embed sustainable practices
This article has been provided by sustainability expert and Tony Innes the managing director of Sustainable Directions, the company which created Small Green Steps an online sustainability resource specifically developed for the education and care sector.
Most early learning and care services around Australia embrace the concept of sustainability in some shape or form. This generally entails the employment of basic recycling practices or teaching children the joys of keeping chickens. However the National Quality Framework requires a great deal more and requires evidence that "sustainable practices are embedded in service operations."
So how do you embed sustainable practices throughout your service? By taking the following small green steps, you will go a long way to ensuring that sustainability becomes second nature for educators and children at your centre.
Step 1 – Establish a Green Team
The biggest mistake that Centre Directors often make is to allocate sustainability to an individual staff member. However embedding sustainable practices across the organisation requires a team effort and needs to be led by the Centre Director. Establishing a Green Team or Environmental Committee made up from passionate employees will produce quicker and more effective results. This is also an opportunity to involve parents who may have environmental experience or a passion for sustainability.
Step 2 – Develop a Sustainability Policy
The next step is to create a policy that spells out your main environmental objectives and lists the main areas that you will focus on e.g. energy efficiency, waste management, environmental education etc. An important aspect of your Sustainability Policy is the development of a Commitment Statement. This should be a short statement that concisely articulates your overall environmental aim. An example of a Commitment Statement is "we at XYZ Early Learning Centre are committed to playing our part in making the planet a cleaner place to live, for the sake of current and future generations". This statement will serve as the foundation of all your environmental strategies and should be communicated regularly to staff, parents and external partners.
Step 3 – Prepare a Sustainability Action Plan
To fail to plan is to plan to fail, therefore it is important that you list and prioritise your sustainability strategies by developing an action plan. The action plan should include a deadline for each action and list the person who will be responsible for ensuring the deadline is met. Resist the temptation to do everything in the first few months. You will have more chance of success if your action plan contains a small number of achievable activities. Your action plan should include operational activities as well as educational projects involving children.
Step 4 – Track your Carbon Emissions
You can’t manage what you don’t measure. So, if one of your objectives is to reduce your carbon emissions, you need to keep track of your carbon emitting activities. For a typical childcare or family day care centre, the major sources of carbon emissions are generally the everyday use of electricity, gas and transport fuels as well as the waste that is sent to landfill. As a result, the easiest way to keep track of your carbon footprint is to record the use of electricity, gas and water from your utility bills on to a simple spreadsheet. This data can then be graphed over time to see if any trends are emerging. Remember to record usage rather than dollars as energy prices can fluctuate over time. The volume of waste that your service generates should also be tracked, particularly the waste that is confined to landfill. This can be measured on a weekly basis in terms of cubic metres or can be recorded as the number of rubbish bins collected. If your service operates a mini bus or is a heavy user of transport fuels, you should also keep track of your vehicle mileage using a spreadsheet or logbook.
Step 5 – Reduce Your Carbon Emissions
The use of electricity for heating, cooling, lighting, cooking, washing and drying clothes and using other electronic appliances is generally one of the main areas of carbon emissions for a typical childcare or family day care centre. Some simple energy efficiency strategies such as turning off unused appliances to avoid standby power and using energy efficient light bulbs will go a long way to reduce your carbon footprint as well as minimising your electricity bill. Introducing simple waste management principles such as reusing, refusing and recycling will gradually reduce the amount of waste that you send to landfill over time. Having tracked your main carbon emitting activities in the previous step, you should start to see some encouraging reductions in your electricity, gas and waste data.
Step 6 – Involve Children and Parents
In order to embed sustainability across your operations it is important to involve children in your activities and to teach them an appreciation of nature and the environment. This could range from some basic recycling activities, games involving natural resources to the introduction of a worm farm or chickens to reduce waste from food scraps. There are a number of sustainable educational resources currently available such as the "Backyard in a Box" series that will greatly assist Early Learning Educators engage with young children. Consistent application of sustainable activities will establish responsible practices in children at an early age and will have a long lasting positive impact for many years to come. Water saving activities and an appreciation of water harvesting using water tanks will also set a positive example for the next generation. Parents should also be encouraged to play their part by introducing energy efficiency practices at home and can help reduce your Centre’s waste figures by preparing plastic free lunch boxes for children.
Step 7 – Supply Chain Review
Once all the above steps have been taken, you should then turn your attention to your supplies and suppliers. You should review all your current supplies, consider their impact on the environment and then look for alternatives that have less impact. For example, you can look at switching to products that are made from recycled material or packaged in biodegradable material. Your major suppliers should also be reviewed by completing a simple sustainability questionnaire that asks them to provide details of what they are doing to reduce their impact on the environment. Preference should be given to suppliers that have more synergy with your sustainability objectives.
Summary
The journey to sustainability does not have to be painful and by following the above small green steps, your centre will be in a very good position to demonstrate that sustainable practices are embedded across your service operations.
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