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A note from our friends at Bright Green.

What happened when Bright Green, an innovative green recruitment organisation brought together leaders from Britain’s top construction firms, sustainability consultancies, schools think-tanks with Kit Rogers, a teacher at Priestlands Secondary School, Hampshire, to discuss sustainability issues in schools?

Kit Rogers is a teacher on the front line.

Passionate about green issues and backed by a troop of eco-warrior students, his school have gone to impressive lengths to instill sustainability into the hearts and minds of students.

‘School is our one opportunity to change the mindset of young people,’ says Kit, ‘I want young people to leave Priestlands with an understanding of sustainability, or I’ve failed.’

The school has already implemented schemes to recycle its waste, grow vegetables and breed pigs for consumption in the school canteen and generate its own solar electricity. One proactive student even started up an offsetting scheme to mitigate the carbon emissions generated by her father’s business travel. The popularity of the scheme has meant that it has expanded into a community project worth more than £10,000 where trees, insulation and even photovoltaics can be sponsored.

But despite some pioneering successes, Kit faces harsh realities in creating a sustainable school. ‘It’s great that the government are funding so many eco-builds, but in reality, most schools are battling with 1950s buildings, teaching priorities and a lack of top-level support,’ says Kit.

With December’s announcement of £110m government investment in 200 eco-schools over the next 3 years, there is a clear support for, and commitment to, the green agenda.

But what about the other 32,800 schools in the UK, such as Priestlands? This was the challenge put to our table of experts. The group began by discussing the perceived barriers associated with the lack of agency and ownership felt within the public sector, observing that teachers and head teachers, in particular, often feel unable to pursue a green agenda due to insufficient control, budget and support.

‘It struck me how the challenges of driving sustainability are essentially the same in schools as in any organisation,’ observed Claudine Blamey, Head of Sustainability at British Land. ‘To drive change, we need individuals to relentlessly persuade and gain buy-in throughout the organisation.’

Building design was initially pinpointed as a key element to sustainability. In Cheshire, sustainability was integrated into the design of Kingsmead Primary School from day one. The use of natural materials, passive ventilation, daylight optimisation and rainwater harvesting systems contributed to the sustainability of this award winning design. However, all of the experts conceded that we have a long way to go if we are to hit the government’s target of all new school buildings being carbon neutral by 2016.

Our group of experts agreed more needs to be done with both new-builds and in particular, existing schools, to improve their environmental impact. Even when high technology is integrated into design, teachers and students need to be educated carefully to ensure the technical aspects of the design are fully taken advantage of.

But the conversation swiftly turned to a broader concept of sustainability, relating not only to carbon neutrality, but to notions of sustainable communities and the role of education in sustainability.

‘We’re assuming we actually need schools in their current form,’ said Marcus Orlovsky, founder of Bryanston Square, a pioneering learning environment ‘Do-tank,’ which aims to radically rethink our approach to education. ‘Schools are occupied thirty-nine hours per week, from eight until four. Some young people leave school uninspired and unqualified for the world. Aren’t we missing something?’

Writhlington School, Somerset, was cited as an excellent example of this kind of radical thinking in action.  The school’s business and enterprise specialism allows young people to run their own businesses, as well as fulfilling the requirements of the national curriculum. But perhaps we need to go further and consider whether schools- and buildings in general- can be more efficiently used by doubling up their use for business and the community.

Whether radical or incremental change is called for in the greening our schooling system, the consensus amongst the group was that innovation and leadership are needed as much in education as they are in business.

‘We need to rethink how we create change in the public sector,’ said Professor Bill Scott from the University of Bath. ‘The bottom line in schools is about learning. To make fundamental change in schools we need to make the connection between sustainability and its impact on the education of our children.’

The sustainability agenda needs leaders such as Kit Rogers and his band of eco-warrior students to push change in all organisations. We also need urgent top-down proactivity and leadership from construction and design firms and from the government to fully realize the ‘greening’ our schools and education system

Sarah Lloyd-Hughes

Green Recruiter
www.brightgreentalent.com

Bright Green identifies and places environmental leaders - both emerging and experienced - in organisations throughout the world for a greener, more sustainable future.

tagged Bright Green Talent and Interesting companies & organisations

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 20th, 2008 at 8:18 am and is filed under Interesting companies & organisations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.