Its Gold For RHS in The Suffolk Carbon Charter! – Finn Corcoran
On Monday 18th November Mr Griffiths, Joel Sheldon, Fin Dinnick and I were invited and attended a Suffolk Carbon Charter Meeting at Wherstead Hall. The evening got off to a great start, with a pre-event reception being well received by all who attended, credit must be due to the drinks and canapes. We met and discussed topics with former pupil parents, influential members of the local council, as well as members of Norfolk County Council and local green entrepreneurs.
There were several speakers who presented before us, sharing their own interesting and unique ways that they and the companies they represent are working to preserve and protect our planet. We were allocated 10 minutes for our presentation; Fin began by encapsulating the audience with the launch of the schools ‘Grow With Us’ campaign, bombarding them with facts and plans for the future including the schools plan to plant a tree on the school site for every new pupil that comes to the school for the next 7 years. He informed the audience of some of the objectives for the Eco Committee for this school year, which are to:
• Continue to implement effective behaviours across the School, including procurement, reduced energy consumption and waste recycling
• Demonstrate the School’s continuing commitment to reducing our carbon footprint through implementation and review of the Carbon Reduction Action Plan, (fondly known as the CRAP!) with a rolling target of 5% reduction per annum.
• Ensure all staff and pupils actively support the pupil Eco Committee in its efforts to raise awareness and change behaviours
Joel then took the reigns and assumed the role of the numbers guy, talking carefully through the schools savings and efficient use of resources since 2010 including the efforts made in 2016 when we first achieved the prestigious Gold Carbon Charter status, one of the proudest statistics being that the Carbon Footprint of the whole school has decreased by an amazing 35% since 2010!
Joel also grabbed everyone’s attention when he spoke on how we had been able to make some of these changes as most of the attendees are striving to do the same. These enablers are: LED lighting, underground pipe insulation, improved water filtration, new and more efficient laundry equipment, reduction in volume of cleaning products used and secondary glazing in some windows among many many others.
It then moved onto my turn, where I talked through the future plans not only for the Eco Committee but for the school as a whole as, “This isn’t just an issue for a few people, this is everyone’s issue”. Subject to funding (planning permission has been approved) we have a desire to install solar panels on buildings around the school that we can; this is difficult as most of the school is Grade I or Grade II listed meaning the outside face has to remain the same. The continued fight against single use plastic started by Ali Ng and myself last year was a highlight, along side the TV footage recorded by East Anglian Daily Times, which went down a storm, and “Rivaled the John Lewis Christmas advert”. We finished with something that we started with; the Grow With Us campaign and the introduction of wild flower seed bags as the new and exciting plastic free hand out at events and open days.
Afterwards we were inundated with questions and compliments to both us and the school at the networking session that took place. The audience very much enjoyed the perspective off a younger generation, with new opportunities being forged. We have also been asked to go to various schools in both Suffolk and Norfolk, to ignite their Eco flames.
The evening concluded with Fin and Mr Griffiths being torn away from their fans, with our updated award of the Gold Carbon Charter and the promise of new connections and interesting pathways to pursue, such as making some of the 1500 trees – planted through the Grow With Us campaign – fruit trees, so we may literally reap the fruits that this initiative will inevitably bear.
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