Simple Swaps for More Sustainable Schools
Eco Schools is a worldwide community, who are going through ten topics to qualify. From From zero waste to litter clean-ups to growing food.
The program is funded by the £200 charged to qualifying schools to display a Green Flag, which also links you to other eco schools worldwide. The fee could be from pooled donations, school budgets or even councils (who will pay less for clean-up, so it balances out, you may even save money).
Read more on no-dig gardening and humane slug/snail deterrents. If you live with animal friends, read up on pet-friendly gardens (some recommended flowers and fruit trees are not safe). Also avoid netting to protect food (just leave some for wildlife!)
The Ten Topics to Graduate!
- Biodiversity – helping local plants, insects and animals thrive
- Energy – reducing energy and switching to clean providers
- Global citizenship – taking an active role in communities
- Healthy living – plant-based, organic and seasonal food
- Reducing litter – to help the planet and local wildlife
- Marine – protecting local water systems and creatures
- School grounds – improving for children, staff and wildlife
- Transport – encouraging walking and school buses
- Waste – refuse, reduce, reduce, repair and recycle
- Water – value and preserve our most precious resource
A Great Book for Green Teachers
Green Teaching is a book on helping teaches to embrace ecological choices and to use nature as the location for learning, to help transform how children are taught.
The author draws on international research and case studies to offer ways to transform how children are taught about environment and nature.
Asphalt to Ecosystems (schoolyard transformations)
Asphalt to Ecosystems (only now as an e-book) is a wonderful resource for schools that wish to transform ugly unused spaces into green outdoor spaces for schools, including green parks and playgrounds, to spaces for growing organic food. It includes case studies and 500 photos.
Read more on no-dig gardening and humane slug/snail deterrents. If you live with animal friends, read up on pet-friendly gardens (some recommended flowers and fruit trees are not safe). Also avoid netting to protect food (just leave some for wildlife!)
Schools are usually large buildings, so just one inspired headteacher can make a huge difference. For example, most people can’t afford to put a solar panel on their roof (and if they did, it would take years to break even). But a big school can not only get grants, but end up powering their school for nothing, and even funding projects, by selling excess energy back to the grid.
Switching to recycled paper products is good for any of us. But with the amount of notebooks that schools use, this would likely save hundreds of trees each year. Same with using natural house paint on walls and ceilings. And switching to green energy like Ecotricity.
Sharon Gamson Danks is on the board of Green Schoolyards America (which she founded), where you can find lots more ideas, case studies and resources. She is an environmental city planner who has helped to shape the green schoolyard field for over 20 years.
She holds master’s degrees in landscape architecture and city planning, and a Professional Certificate in Natural Resource Management. She is the mother of two expert playground testers, who are now off on adventures of their own.
Delphis Eco (commercial cleaning products)
Delphis Eco is the main brand of commercial eco-friendly cleaning products for offices, hotels, restaurants, schools, doctor/dental surgeries, hospitals etc. The entire range is biodegradable, sold in recycled plastic bottles and has super reviews! Use with plastic-free sponges or cloths.
Essential oils should be avoided for pregnancy/nursing and near babies/pets. Citrus oils are toxic to pets (even if rinsed and dried, residue nearby could be licked from paws). For these areas, just clean surfaces with baking soda and/or cleaning vinegar.
Never mix vinegar or lemon juice with any bleach (causes toxic gas).
Use floor cleaners with a plastic-free mop or use a bucket filter if using a microfiber mop, to stop leaching microplastics (collect and securely bin them, to avoid them washing away at landfill).
The range includes:
- Foaming & Combi Oven Cleaners
- Heavy Duty Toilet & Limescale Remover
- Washroom Cleaner & Urinal Blocks
- Metal Polish
- Chewing Gum Remover
- Natural Salad Wash
- Commercial Hand Soap
- Floor Maintainer (for mops or floor machines)
- Heavy Duty Degreaser
- Scented Air Freshener
- Cabinet Glass Wash
- Masonry & Stone Cleaner
- Waterless Hand Rub
- Low Foam Degreaser
- X-Factor Stain Remover Spray (for sticky marks, spills & pen marks).
Where to Recycle Toxic Cleaning/Laundry Products
For toxic cleaning/laundry products, you can recycle empty bottles with kerbside collections. For bottles with product, dispose of them at your council’s hazardous waste department.
The Story of Delphis Eco
Delphis Eco was founded by city banker Mark Jankovich, who when he discovered what goes into most cleaning brands, was horrified. So decided to do something to help.
Ensuring that products reduced the impact to aquatic life and worked as well (or better) than conventional competitors. Mark also created the ‘recycled plastic rating’ code on bottles.
Nothing is 100% harmless (that would be water). But these are as good as you get (never pour neat essential oils down sinks or drains, this would harm aquatic life).
Despite being the main brand used by many large supermarkets for their catering and warehouses, the same shops rarely sell Delphis Eco in stores for customers (why not?) You can find them in some Waitrose branches.
According to Which?, six in ten products failed to meet principles of the Green Claims Code. 84% failed at least one of the key checks. This is why independent trusted watchdogs are essential. When consumers are misled by glossy marketing and vague environmental promises, everyone loses, especially the planet. Delphis Eco
Delphis Eco is now a major eco-cleaning brand, worth several million pounds (it helps when a banker founds it, as he knows how to do the numbers!) He does also credit the TV series from Sir David Attenborough as that was when everyone starting questioning single-use plastics.
Mark thinks that supermarkets won’t be legally allowed to sell single-use items in a few years, everything will be refillable (like zero waste shops). The best advice he got for starting a business?
If someone gave you a wand, what would you do? Ok, so now do it!
Our Lady of Sion Schools (eco-friendly learning)
Our Lady of Sion School in Worthing (West Sussex) is one of a worldwide network of schools (they are private, but not as expensive as many and offer concessions) that could inspire state schools, in the way they are run and how they teach.
Founded by two extremely wealthy Jewish brothers who later were baptised into a Jesuit Catholic order, the schools accept people of all faiths, and their religious education promotes respect for all beliefs.
The school’s motto is ‘Consideration always’.
The brothers’ history is interesting. One became a Catholic priest and was rejected by his family, including his brother. But as the second brother was visiting Rome just before marriage, he had a vision of the Virgin Mary, and fell on his knees:
In the presence of the Blessed Virgin Mary, although she did not utter a word, I understood the horror of the state of my soul, the hideousness of sin, the beauty of the Catholic religion. In a word, I understood everything.
On his return home, his fiancée rejected his newfound faith, and he also became ordained as a priest. Together they used their wealth to found an education movement based on love and respect for God and each other.
They helped to found a ‘Convent of the Sisters of Sion’, and it was these sisters who arrived in Worthing, which led to the founding of the school. Back in the day, there was also an adjacent free school for local orphans and children in poverty.
What makes these schools special is that all focus on serving up nutritious organic food (often from their own gardens). Worthing’s school (the only one presently in England, most of the others are in the USA, Costa Rica, France, Turkey or Australia) is completely plant-based (everything is also free from palm oil and the 14 major allergens).
As well as becoming the first school in the UK to serve fully vegan food (a decision made in consultation with students and parents), it has consistent excellent ratings for education and happiness. Typical meals served include:
- Fillet Fisch Burger with tartare sauce and chips
- Butternut squash and sweet potato tikka masala with rice
- Tofu tacos with Asian slaw
Previous alumni include:
- Nuala Quinn-Barton (the Irish film producer of Goodbye Christopher Robin, the biopic of A A Milne, who wrote the Winnie the Pooh books).
- Actor Noah Huntley (who grew up on a nearby Sussex farm). He embraced the veggie lifestyle as an adult, saying he loves whizzing up a smoothie for breakfast, snacking on hummus and salad, and wished the world had more vegan shoes!
Downe House, Berkshire (England’s Greenest School?)
Downe House (Berkshire) is working to become one of the most environmentally-friendly schools in England. It has won the top eco school award and has its own eco student committee.
It has no plastic bottles, a crisp packet recycling scheme and only uses free-range eggs (and holds Meat Free Mondays for everyone).
Food waste is collected to make into biogas, all lighting is LED, cups are made from bamboo and they plant trees and flowers for bees. Even old uniforms are gifted to help others.
Originally founded in Charles Darwin’s former home in Kent, 3o-year old ‘Miss Olive Willis’ had strong ideas on how girls should be educated.
Today the school focuses on compassion and even helps out at local allotments.
Well-known graduates are comedienne Miranda Hart, TV presenter Clare Balding and actress Geraldine James.
