Senior Head's Blog: Sustainability

One of the six Round Square IDEALS is Environmentalism, and, inspired by the International Conference (September 2022) and members of last year's Upper Sixth, Felsted is launching a New Year's Resolution based on Sustainability for January 2023.  We are hoping that this will impact not only on our practice at Felsted, but also on families, OFs and all of the wider Felsted community.  We are currently in talks with an external consultant, who is looking at our site, to see where we can effectively reduce carbon emissions and improve our sustainability, but in the meantime, we want our New Year's Resolution to shift behaviours at an individual level, in a way that is achievable, but visible.

We are asking all students and staff to bring in reusable water bottles/coffee cups.  We are ensuring that we are much better at switching off lights and closing windows, including 'closing down' some teaching buildings earlier in the evening, to reduce energy use.  We are tracking data on printing, that we will publish, in order to reduce paper usage, and will also be tracking food waste in the dining rooms, and publishing data for that.  We are exploring a rewilding project onsite around the Bury Pond, and in some areas at Felsted Prep as well.  We are working with CSH Environmental (our waste removal firm) to ensure that we are recycling all that we can, and will be sharing further details around the site of items that should be recycled.  

We have appointed Sustainability Champions across the houses, and will be asking them to bring forward ideas, as well as relaying information back to the houses.  We are also seeking to publicise stories about sustainability to ensure that it is at the forefront of all minds.  We are tracking energy use across the site, and will be reviewing the measures to ensure that we can reduce the amount that we are using.  We are hoping to put food waste caddies into house kitchens, we are looking to increase further items of uniform that are 'eco friendly'.  In January, we will be carrying out a traffic survey, in order to see whether we can reduce some of the car journeys to and from school.  

We are very keen to work with our whole community on this project.  While it is a New Year's Resolution, it is only a small start towards what we will need to be doing in the coming years.  We see this as an important educational step, as well as being the right thing to do, and of course, likely to be an increasing requirement for all schools (and other sectors of society).  I look forward to working with everyone towards a more sustainable Felsted.

Many thanks,

Chris Townsend
Head, Felsted School