Last word
Helen Burge reflects on her Trust’s eco journey
R
emember The Good Life – the BBC sitcom from the 1970s, which was endlessly repeated in the 1980s and
still pops up on today’s schedules from time to time? The central characters, Tom and Barbara, give up the rat race and become self- suffi cient, to the horror of their neighbours (Margo and Jerry). I wonder how different that series would be if they made it now? For a start Tom and Barbara would probably be talking about climate change and carbon footprints. Plus, the focus would probably shift from one individual’s mid-life-crisis- induced lifestyle change to a more globally-aware citizens’ response to the climate crisis. Tom wouldn’t be working as a
designer of plastic toys for breakfast cereal packets, as thankfully we’ve moved on from that single-use plastic monstrosity of an idea!
Barbara would be a fan of charity shops and have a TikTok account with videos of dancing home-grown vegetables. And no doubt they’d be coming up with ways to generate their own energy, and would be totally vegetarian or even vegan. Instead of laughing at their circumstances, we might aspire to them. We’d certainly be on board with their values. I’m really proud that my Trust is
taking sustainability seriously. We’ve got a strand in our strategic plan; our risk register refers to it and our Climate Justice Revolution Group actively participated at COP26. As a result of this, we are being asked to engage with the DfE’s Sustainability and Climate Change working group. We’ve got schools which have
achieved their Green Eco Schools award and others just starting on this journey. But across the Trust
there is a buzz (and it’s not only due to the increase in biodiversity within our grounds). Students are sharing their ideas, many of which are simple and low cost, and seeing action being taken promptly to implement them. Operational staff are working with curriculum staff and students to bring about positive changes across our estate. Hopefully we should see a reduction in our CO2 intensity ratio on our streamlined energy and carbon report next August. Our tenders for catering,
caretaking and cleaning have sustainability elements within them; we are setting the expectation to our suppliers that they need to be demonstrating real green actions. We have stopped working with a certain online supplier for a variety of reasons, including the high volume of cardboard waste we have to pay to dispose of and the high volume of delivery trips to fulfi l orders. We have worked with other
suppliers to encourage them to work at pace and share their green agenda. And we are currently looking at a potential food waste contractor that will pick up food waste via its biofuel vehicle. Which made me think, when will there be minibuses run on biofuel? Is that better than having an EV? What about charging points, or even solar-powered charging points? Maybe we all need to channel a bit of that Tom and Barbara optimism to create a good life for future generations.
Helen Burge is deputy chief operations officer at The Priory Learning Trust and SRMA with Cotswold Beacon Academy Trust. @DeputyCOOatTPLT
42 SPRING 2022 FundEd
IMAGES: OLGA KURBATOVA; GLEB KOSARENKO/
ISTOCKPHOTO.COM
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