Website – UKSSN Operations Group
LinkedIn – (3) UK Schools Sustainability Network Operations Group | Groups | LinkedIn
“If you can’t fly, run. If you can’t run, walk. But keep moving forward.” (Martin Luther King Jr.)
🩺Wellbeing: Healthy people for a healthy planet 🩺
We know what the science says about climate change and what needs to be done. We are appointing highly motivated sustainability leaders and setting them the task of transforming our schools and colleges, achieving net zero, increasing biodiversity, changing our curriculums, promoting green careers, and adapting our estates. What is perhaps not being considered – at least not as much as it should be – is how difficult the task is. Asking just a few people to change decades of culture and practice with limited resource, knowledge, influence and resource, when everyone else in school is focussed on other important priorities and struggling with their own workload and issues….a recipe for burnout before we even start 🚨.
We really need to think about the scale of the challenge we are asking from our sustainability leads….we need healthy people if we want a healthy planet. I have been working with Thoughtbox over the past year. Taking inspiration from the Thoughtbox Triple-Wellbeing programme and a recent article by behavioural therapist Ted Bradshaw I thought now might be a timely point to share a few prompts about self-care and personal wellbeing.
“Balance is not something you find, it is something you create.” (Jana Kingsford)
1. Release 🐒 Tensions build up in our bodies. As you’re reading this, take a moment to check – are you frowning or squinting at all? Observe your posture, breathe deeply and slowly in… and out…… What about some shoulder rolls or stretching out your arms and fingers sideways. Notice that you do have a body 😅 and see what areas could use a little gentle release today.
2. Rest 🔕 What does ‘rest’ look like in your daily routine and how does it affect your overall wellbeing? Do you feel rested at the end of a break, or ‘full’ / exhausted mentally? If it is the latter, try lying flat on the floor and looking up at the ceiling for the length of a song or two. Go on a quiet nature walk. Slow down your pace on your next commute. Give your brain less to chew on.
3. Recharge 🥊 What activities recharge your battery? How can you prioritise them in your schedule? Sometimes just changing the order you do things can help ensure your energy is sustained. There is no planet B and no ‘body B’ so don’t skip meals, pay attention to your diet 🥦 and stay hydrated. Physical and mental health are two sides of the same coin.
4. Remember fun and love 🎈 Small moments of joy are especially nourishing in these darker days. Sharing a laugh, petting an animal or holding the hand of someone you love can make all the difference!
🎓 CPD: UKSSN Ops Group – Sustainable Procurement 🎓
UKSSN Operations Group
Yesterday we held our regular network meeting on the topic of sustainable procurement. A green transition in the private sector is critical to achieving our ambitions for the climate. There is lots of good work happening in business but we still see a lot of poor behaviour:
😀 Good – Arsenal & Kingfisher Lead in Emissions Reduction Goals (this may be the first and last time I celebrate Arsenal!)
😟 Not so good – 95% of companies have no energy efficiency targets and most source no renewable electricity – edie
Yesterday’s meeting was an opportunity to explore practical steps we can take to influence suppliers to support our ambitions and push back on those that do not. Links to the meeting recording and presentation slides can be found here:
Recording – UKSSN Operations Group Online Community
Presentations – UKSSN Operations Group Online Community
Thank you to Value Match, School Resource Exchange and Jessica Marshall (Oasis Community Learning) and Emily Brunton (United Learning) for your valuable contributions.
The meeting was also a good reminder of the first step in procurement planning – do you actually really need it 🤔.
🦋 Biodiversity: Ovo Foundation Nature Prize 🦋
Our competitions – Lets Go Zero
Don’t miss out – closing date is 25th November for the OVO Foundation Nature Prize. OVO Foundation and Let’s Go Zero have teamed up to boost children and young people’s access to biodiversity with 25 cash prizes of £1,000 or £250. For a chance to win share how your school would bring students closer to nature. Bonus points if your project is in one of our target carbon reduction areas: Nature, Food, Adaptation and Resilience, Water, Culture, and Waste.
What to do in your Nature Park this autumn | Education Nature Park
Top five things to do in your Nature Park during the autumn season. From mapping your habitats to creating a vision statement, you can get planning and start your Nature Park journey through their curriculum-linked activities. Plus a webinar (4th December at 16.15) to hear from other schools already participating in the Education Nature Park initiative.
🛰️Data: Climate Trace🛰️
Climate TRACE
Another useful tool to support a better understanding of emissions at a local level. Climate TRACE enables direct emissions tracking, and their latest inventory combines data from 300 satellites, making it possible to quantify the monthly carbon, methane, and other greenhouse gas emissions for every country, state, and county, as well as major individual emission sources. The Climate Trace tool can help inform and empower local leaders to take effective action to reduce these emissions.
💰Decarbonisation: Banking 💰
Triodos Bank’s €500m Commitment to Nature-Based Solutions
Last year HEART teamed-up with MotherTree to help us better understand the impact of our choice of bank on our carbon footprint. You can find the impact assessment and recommendations if you follow this link to our website. The decision to switch bank isn’t an easy one and can’t be taken in isolation but if we are serious about our role in protecting the planet and our communities it a conversation we need to have.
🤔Behaviour: Sustainable Sidekicks🤔
subscribepage.com/sustainablesidekicksnewsletter
If we build our understanding why we act in a certain way we can design systems that encourage the behaviours we want to see. Livvy Drake is an expert in behaviour and using behavioural science to help meet environmental targets and goals. I encourage anyone who is leading on sustainability to follow Livvy, subscribe to the newsletter and sign up to her regular online webinars. 💚
📅 CPD: Sustainability Events 📅
It is great to see an increase in regional and national events to support schools and Trusts. We list and promote events on the website, here are just a few:
Greater Manchester Green Summit – GM Green Summit 2024 – GM Green City (9th December 2024)
Climate and Nature Action Event in Cambridgeshire (3rd February 2025)
East of England Sustainability in Education Series in Bedfordshire (12th February 2025), Essex (26th March 2025) and Suffolk (tbc)
ASCL Annual Sustainability Conference, Manchester – 5th June 2025 (ASCL – ASCL Sustainability Conference 2025)
North-West Sustainability Learning Conference – 26th June 2025
Next week is the ISBL National Conference. ISBL is a great supporter of our work on sustainability and next week will see us take another step forward in embedding action on climate change in how we run our schools. More on that next week but if you are attending the conference do come and say hello.
If you are planning an event let us know and we will share with colleagues in the network.
And finally…..cause for optimism
This week I had the joy of working with pilot schools at the launch of Our Schools Our World (OSOW) Bedfordshire. The OSOW pilot programme is being rolled out to Bedfordshire, Brent, Leicester, Devon, and Suffolk in 2024/25 (funded via Let’s Go Zero). Yesterday I joined a meeting of the Bedfordshire Governance Strategic Partnership Group (GSPG) to share our work on sustainability and talk about the role of Governors and Trustees. Over the past couple of weeks, we have had positive discussions about sustainability action with CAPE, ASCL, ISBL and CST. We might have a long way to go but we are building the foundations and there is a lot of progress to celebrate 🥳.
Finally, if you cannot get away from your desk right now why not take a moment to look at these stunning wildlife pictures from around the world. From an emperor penguin found very far from its Antarctica home to an Anatolian leopard to an egret, these eighteen images might just give you the taste of nature you need.