Vanguard Learning Trust

Environmental sustainability week

Monday 27th February to Friday 3rd March 2023

“We need to move beyond guilt or blame, and get on with the practical tasks at hand.” Sir David Attenborough

There is mounting excitement regarding our Trust hosting its first environmental sustainability week. The week has three main objectives, which are as follows:

• to understand how an individual’s or an organisation’s carbon footprint is measured;

• to consider the importance of reusing items as part of reducing our carbon footprint; and

• to challenge ourselves to reduce our carbon footprint.

Vanguard Learning Trust has been working on environmental sustainability projects for several years which have included consideration in relation to estates management, eg. the use of LED lighting; a dragons’ den competition in the spring and summer terms 2021 to support students with school-based projects (click here); a governance conference in November 2021 involving a number of keynote speakers as well as student presentations (click here) in order to raise the profile, including measures that schools can take to reduce their carbon footprint; the establishment of environmental sustainability working parties in 2022, both operational and student-facing; our school joining the Let’s Go Zero campaign led by Ashden Climate Solutions in Action (click here) with the ambition to be carbon zero by 2030; the launch of an electric car scheme for staff; and working with Sustainable Advantage (click here) this academic year, with the support of ACS International Schools, to collect the data to measure each school’s current carbon footprint so that targets can be set and progress measured.

The week has been organised by a working party with representation from each school as well as the Trust’s central team; we believe the activities will support the Trust to achieve the agreed objectives for the week. This booklet outlines all of the plans which have been released to the community throughout February in preparation for the week. It is an exciting opportunity for the Trust’s community - students, staff, families, governors, members and trustees - to work together through the ‘how low can we go’ challenge in order to change habits so that we lower our carbon footprint. Our overarching aim is for the legacy of the week to be permanent changes in behaviour as we know this is urgently required.

The arrangements for the week are an example of how we can achieve great things when we work collectively and we know there is a moral imperative to change our habits in order to face this global challenge. As stated by Sir David Attenborough, which is the quotation at the front of the booklet, it is now time for collective action.