Footprint - Issue 3

The Sustainability Newsletter for staff & students of the Heart of Yorkshire Education Group

Welcome from Sam Wright

Hopefully you will be picking up this edition as we mark our second Group-wide sustainability week, celebrating all things sustainability.

Here at the Heart of Yorkshire Education Group, we are fully committed to the development of sustainability within our communities. This is a key strategic objective of ours and we have been making great progress with our journey so far, which we’re pleased to share with you in this edition.

Over the last ten years, we’ve done an incredible amount of work in the development of our sustainable practices, but the real step-change for us was making sustainability our fifth strategic objective. That is why, since our last edition of Footprint, we have published our Sustainability Strategy which demonstrates our commitment and outlines our plans to making our communities more sustainable.

Great strides have been made in the development and delivery of our Green Skills curriculum, with the Group now offering 13 programmes in a range of industries. This has resulted in a significant number of learners developing the skills they need to take on green jobs. This innovation was recognised at the Yorkshire Learning Provider Awards in January 2024,

with the Group taking home the Best Skills Bootcamp Delivery Award for our Carbon Capture and Storage programme – which has trained over 40 people across the region in this climatesaving technology.

We have also been collaborating and engaging with a number of partners and specialist forums to ensure we have the support and knowledge for our journey. Work has been carried out with the likes of the Heat Exchange Group to refine and improve our Heat Recovery courses, which will help ensure learners gain the skills they need to operate and benefit from this innovative green technology.

It’s our staff and students who are the real ‘agents of change’ though, so it was incredibly important for us to embed sustainability into our induction materials when they start their programmes or employment with us, ensuring everybody is aware of the role they can play in saving the planet. It’s been fantastic to see colleagues and students putting sustainability at the heart of their activities and really driving forward change.

We look forward to celebrating these best practices and the fantastic initiatives our staff and students have been carrying out during Sustainability Week, which will take place from the 18th to the 22nd March 2024

Sam Wright

Principal and Chief Executive Heart of Yorkshire Education Group

Group wins Yorkshire Learning Providers Award

The Heart of Yorkshire Education Group has been recognised by the Yorkshire Learning Providers Awards for its efforts in helping the region develop the green skills for future demands.

The Group’s Skills Bootcamp in the Principles of Carbon Capture and Storage programme was presented with the Best Skills Bootcamp Delivery

accolade at the Yorkshire Learning Providers 20th Birthday Awards.

The accolade recognises the Group’s ability to progress individuals into employment through its innovative and flexible programme delivery, with many learners upskilling in their roles at companies such as Drax and Enfinium.

Meeting Sustainable Development Goals

As part of our commitment, we have aligned our plans to the 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which provide an ambitious, globally-agreed, shared blueprint for the world we want to see by 2030.

The 17 SDGs are a call to action on the most pressing challenges and opportunities facing humanity and the natural world, and we must, along with all other colleges, play a leading role in tackling them.

We have mapped out how we are delivering SDGs throughout the curriculum as well as identifying which learners are exposed to education for sustainable development. This enables an active approach to all staff supporting students with their sustainability education, developing both staff and

students in unison and ensuring the SDGs feature across our sustainability education.

The following SDGs are already fully included within our delivery models:

• Good health and wellbeing

• Quality education

• Gender equality

The Group is seeking to embed further SDGs through the following types of activities:

• Student social action projects – global citizenship

• Increase of visibility through marketing, screens, visuals and via this magazine, Footprint

• Developing environmental awareness and growing climate responsibility through staff development

• Developing learning influencers through staff

• Visits to partner organisations, such as Veolia – from zero to landfill

• Activities relating to biodiversity - tree planting, wellbeing walks, green spaces

• Further environmental sustainable development within the Pastoral Curriculum

Supply Chain Sustainability School Partnership launched

Being a Supply Chain Sustainability School partner means we are focused on developing the sustainability maturity of our workforce and our supply chain. Over the coming months, the Supply Chain Sustainability School will be working with us to ensure we can maximise the value of the partnership.

Along with industry leading employers and other education providers, this gives us access to the Future Workforce Leadership Group and other benefits such as a vast number of e-learning modules, Continuous Personal Development (CPD) accredited

Planet Earth Games

Students and staff from across the Group have been getting stuck into the Planet Earth Games, which encourages Further Education institutions across the UK to organise sustainable activities. Those taking part can measure their progress by scoring points and earning badges while taking challenges that support a sustainable and active lifestyle.

As of early February, Castleford College is winning the Further Education Planet Earth Games competition, with Selby College and Wakefield College also in the top ten. Get involved in the Planet Earth Games by taking part in a range of activities around:

• Carbon Reduction

• Energy

• Travel

• Food

• Waste Reduction

• Connecting to Nature

• Conservation

Sign up to your College using the registration codes below and take part in activities to start earning points:

Castleford College – 1L9YKYRNY6PF

Selby College – ZE81DDOYN4JB

Wakefield College – OG138GDERA8E

workshops and an opportunity to build relationships and collaborate across many industries.

As part of our upcoming CPD day, we are inviting all staff to a session delivered by the Supply Chain Sustainability School. Staff will receive an invitation to start their own Supply Chain Sustainability School account prior to this, where they will be able to access a range of free resources on sustainability.

They will also be able to explore the school platform and complete some of the accredited CPD so that they can roll this out in the future to their students.

Creating a Greener Curriculum

Across our subject areas, sustainability is taught within the curriculum and online resources are used to reduce paper wastage. Our staff and students are also taking additional steps to embed sustainability in everything they do:

Hair & Beauty make Sustainable Moves

The Hair & Beauty department at Castleford College has formed a new partnership with Keune, a leading supplier for the hairdressing and barbering sector for more than a hundred years.

This comes as Keune has recently received B Corp certification, which is awarded to companies that meet the high standards of sustainability and social responsibility. The B Corp assessment looks at all aspects including people and suppliers to customers and community.

Representatives from Keune worked closely with Adele Wright, Head of Curriculum for Hair & Beauty and Rachel Anderson, Curriculum Manager

for the area, to understand the needs of the department and its ambitions to become more sustainable.

The Hair & Beauty department at Selby College is also making changes to reduce its wastage, with reusable foils now being used within its Hair & Beauty salon.

But it doesn’t stop there, the Group is always considering ways to reduce its waste and implement more sustainable practices, with the Horticulture department also composting hair from Castleford College’s salons and food waste from Wakefield College.

Sport & Public Services make ground on Sustainable Goals

Public Services students from Selby College and Wakefield College are warming up for their next ‘plogging’ event, which will see them collect litter whilst jogging around Thornes Park in Wakefield. Last year’s event was a great success, with a significant number of students taking part and a large volume of litter picked.

Creating a Greener Curriculum

Construction

Sustainability is being embedded into learning across the Group’s Construction programmes which cover the modern methods of construction, introduction to digital technologies and green skills.

A Levels

Care & Early Years

Moving towards a more digital approach across all levels of study to support both sustainability and skills development of students.

Sustainability is taught across a range of subject areas including Applied Science, Biology and Business Studies. Environmentally focussed projects and learning are also being carried out in Art & Design.

Creating a Greener Curriculum

Business students present Sustainability Ideas to SoluPak

Level 2 Business students took part in a Sustainability Roadshow in October 2023, which provided them with a great understanding of the three pillars of sustainability and SDGs and how to

Preparing learners for a career in Sustainable Business

As part of the University of Hull’s transforming programmes initiative, the Business & Management department is revamping its business degree, enabling students to build the knowledge, skills and experience to become a successful business manager in a range of industries with a specific focus on sustainability.

The new Foundation degree in Leadership & Management with an optional Top-Up in BA (Hons) Leadership & Management in Sustainability, will prepare learners for the working world by covering a range of topics that are common to business and management in an increasingly diverse market whilst specialising in specific sustainability modules designed to broaden understanding and develop skills for learners next steps.

apply them to a business setting. The students demonstrated their artistic side and created themed boards which were presented to SoluPak’s Managing Director, Helen McDonald, who judged

the levels of knowledge and ideas each learner had for producing a sustainable business plan.

Engineering & Automotive

The department is reviewing metal scrap recycling across all sites and project material usage.

Creating a Greener Curriculum

Computing & Digital Horticulture

The department has adopted Figma as an alternative to sketch book and are working with Escape Technologies and Lenovo to look at the sustainability impact of the technology we use and how we can improve this.

Our Horticultural students recently spent the day planting 450 trees with Open Country Yorkshire to create a new woodland in Batley.

Helping learners overcome barriers to Education

As part of our commitment to levelling up, we have developed a wide range of provision within our Alternative Curriculum which suits a variety of learning styles and helps learners overcome barriers to education. This aligns with SDG1 of No Poverty, with a number of other projects designed to improve Health and Wellbeing and Resilience (SDG 3).

A number of biodiversity initiatives are also being delivered across our three colleges, including:

• Selby College – Ongoing gardening project through the Green Team at Goole at the College’s allotment and joint projects with Up for Yorkshire

• Wakefield College – Projects at Apple Tree Allotments

• Castleford College – Work being developed with The Growing Zone based at Kippax

Students create sustainable fashion for Wakefield District

Level 3 Fashion Textile students from Wakefield College have teamed up with Community Foundation Wakefield District to create and help promote sustainable fashion across the district.

As part of this, the students have transformed clothes that have previously been donated to the charity’s shop or fabrics which would usually be sent to landfill to create new fashionable garments or accessories.

The items are now being displayed in the charity shop’s window in Wakefield, helping to encourage shoppers to buy second-hand items.

The garments will be sold as part of the charity’s Community Give Box, with the money raised going towards its Umbrella Fund which provides small grants to individuals, local communities and voluntary groups to help build better communities within the Wakefield District.

Student Ruby Lawton said about the project: “I was excited to work with Community Foundation Wakefield District because I go to charity shops quite a lot and I’d seen people recycling yarn in different ways from charity shops. When we were asked to choose garments from The Give Box to make our pieces, I selected items that I could make into some sort of yarn to crochet with. I really enjoyed this project because it gave me the opportunity to practice new skills and recycle t-shirts and make them into something completely new.”

Lisa Milburn, Executive Director at Community Foundation Wakefield District, said: “We try to promote sustainability in everything we do, so this collaborative project was perfect in terms of avoiding landfill, re-use, repurpose and giving something old a new lease of life. The students were brilliant, and several of them are now regular visitors to look at what they can upcycle and individualise from our range of clothes. The plan is to sell or auction the items that the students created to put funds back into the community.”

Fast Fashion Facts

• Buying just one more used item instead of brand-new this year could save 5.7 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions (Loop Generation)

• Fast fashion is the second-largest polluter of clean water after agriculture globally. The fashion industry accounts for 17-20% of the world’s wastewater (World Bank)

• It takes 2,000 gallons of water to make a pair of jeans (WWF)

• Fashion produces 0.5 million tons of microplastics ever year (Earth.org)

• Every year, 5.8 million tons of textiles are thrown away, about 11.3 kg per person (European Commission Factsheet Textiles, March 2022)

• According to a study commissioned by Oxfam, £218 million worth of Christmas outfits and partywear will be thrown away by new year, after barely being worn

• The fashion industry produces between two to eight percent of global carbon emissions (UN)

Making Green Skills for Green Jobs a reality

We fully recognise the role we need to play in supporting the region’s aspirations and focus on sustainability measures, including developing sustainability skills in readiness for green jobs.

We’ve made great strides so far in the development and delivery of our

Green Skills curriculum. 13 Green Skills programmes have been developed in Automotive, Construction, Carbon Capture & Storage and Heat Recovery, with over 70 learners developing the green skills needed for green jobs.

Learning Upskill in Carbon Capture and Storage

Another cohort of learners studying the Group’s Skills Bootcamp in Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) have successfully completed the programme, enabling them to expand their knowledge and skills in the carbon-saving technology.

The students took day release from their employers Drax and Enfinium over a five-week period, where they were able to train on the Group’s state-of-the-art innovative CCS equipment, including a gas absorption rig which mimics real-world CCS methods.

As a result of completing the programme, the learners will now be able to implement Carbon Capture projects within their businesses or adapt the technology and learning for other applications.

Declan Farmer, Electrical Apprentice at Drax, said after completing the programme: “It has been very insightful learning about the structure and chemistry behind CCS. I plan to implement my skills and new qualification into my everyday work life with regards to building and maintaining a CCS plant.”

Debbie Lee, Employer Engagement Manager at the Heart of Yorkshire Education Group, also recently spoke about the benefits of Carbon Capture and Storage and its ability to aid the UK in reaching NetZero at the Wakefield District Partnership to Net Zero, Industry and Power Workshop, hosted by Sewtec Automation Ltd in January.

Heat Recovery and Awareness pilot is a success

The Group has carried out a successful pilot of its Awareness of Heat Recovery and Transfer course with several employees from the Heat Exchange Group.

This came following a series of workshops carried out under the Strategic Development Fund where we sought their (and other employers’) views on what courses in heat recovery the Group should offer, what the current gaps in provision were and how we might pitch and model heat recovery courses for different levels of students. The feedback received from the Heat Exchange Group’s

employees who attended the one-day pilot course has enabled us to refine and improve the first level of our Heat Recovery and Awareness course.

The scoping and specification of a five-day course is also close to being finalised, with the Group aiming to pilot the programme shortly.

The Group has also invested in nextgeneration equipment to support the delivery of the course, including air source heat pumps, conditional monitoring equipment, heat exchangers, ground source heat pumps, solar thermal and refrigeration.

Sustainability Networking Event a success

It was great to see so many employers from a range of different industries at our sustainability-themed Employer Breakfast during National Apprenticeship Week. Held at Snozone at Xscape Castleford on Tuesday 6th February, the event provided a great opportunity for businesses and professionals to discuss their sustainability plans and their skills needs in this area.

Industry talks and a Q&A session were also held, with Managing Director at SoluPak, Helen McDonald, sharing the company’s journey in making their operations more sustainable. This includes the creation of its bottle4life system, which has eliminated a significant amount of single use plastic from the waste stream, its production processes and for its customers –with the number of purpose sachets it sold in 2022 eliminating the equivalent of 26 tonnes of plastic.

Ross Jones, Food & Beverage Manager at Snozone, also spoke about the social and environmental initiatives its driving forward, including how Snozone operates 100% renewable electricity to help minimise its carbon footprint. Ross also shared with attendees the ethical and sustainable practices it’s focusing on as a business to reduce its waste.

David White, Head of Regional Partnerships and Projects at the Heart of Yorkshire Education Group, also shared insights into how businesses can reduce their carbon footprint, become more sustainable and prepare for future demands.

If you are interested in finding out how we can help you make your business greener, please contact David White at dwhite@heartofyorkshire.ac.uk

New Carbon Capture partner ‘Forest Carbon’

The Group has recently changed paper supplier, meaning that the Carbon Capture scheme we use when purchasing paper has also changed from the Woodland Trust to Forest Carbon.

The new scheme still supports British woodland, and in the last quarter the paper purchased on the scheme enabled 12 new trees to be planted in Northumberland, creating a new wooded area of 74 square metres.

When it comes to the sustainability of Print and Paper, it is important to separate the facts from the myths.

For more information visit:

https://twosides.info/myths-and-facts

Our role in creating a

Sustainable Future

Waste not, want not! We’re on the Green Team We’re on the Green Team

100% of waste diverted from landfill and over the last year

29.67% of this has been recycled.

We’ve got the Power We’ve got the Power Waste not, want not!

We go ECO!

The Group has two electric vans and two electric cars in its fleet. They replaced vehicles run on fossil fuels and are located at Wakefield and Selby.

So far, we have collected 225 tonnes of waste, which is a total of 41 tonnes of CO2 saved. This is the equivalent to removing 15 cars off the road, planting 142 trees each year, or powering 25 houses for a year. Through recycling, we have saved 18 tonnes of CO2 and for diversion from landfill we have saved 23 tonnes of CO2.

More than

61,000 kWh

of energy was generated from arrays of Photovoltaic (PV) located at Castleford College and Wakefield College.

We’re a part of it!

We’re a part of it!

We go ECO! Just so you know... Just so you know...

We are members of the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC) that aim to drive sustainability to the heart of further and higher education.

Between the academic years 2021/2022 and 2022/2023, the Group reduced its carbon emissions by 13%.

Scan the QR code to read our Sustainability Strategy 2023-2026 or visit

www.heartofyorkshire.ac.uk/about/corporate-documents

Footprint, and all other Group print is produced using paper purchased through recognised Carbon Capture schemes.

As a Group, when purchasing paper products or printed materials, we carefully consider which supplier we use based on their Carbon Capture scheme and sustainability credentials. We are currently a part of the Antalis Forest Carbon scheme which plants trees to mitigate the CO2 emissions generated by the production, storage and distribution of the paper.

heartofyorkshire.ac.uk/sustainability