By Tarina Chow, Executive Business Manager of a SEND-specialist MAT

This blog is part 2 of a three-part blog series. You can read part 1, Sustainability: A practical guide for schools and college leaders, here. 

One of our key takeaways from the ASCL Sustainability Conference 2024 was that any progress towards net zero is a journey we need to take in partnership with others. Admittedly, we were envious of the MAT who was well into their journey, with their carbon-cutting initiatives and homegrown veggie patches, but what we took away from their journey and the other workshops we attended was that it’s all about partnerships.  Here’s a little guide to what helped us, and which we hope you find useful.

External partnerships: the friends who know what they’re doing
First up, UKSSN. I know I have mentioned them before but they really should be your first stop. So many great ideas, advice forums and network meetings to start you on your way. Join the Ops meetings as each has  a special focus which can help drive your action plans.

The DFE established the Climate Ambassador programme by linking with key universities across the UK.  Think of them as sustainability gurus; we have been lucky to have support with carbon literacy and management training, consultation support and advice. We also encouraged passionate staff within our trust to become a Climate Ambassador, a unique opportunity to receive high-quality training that can support you, your school or college and wider school communities. Having trained staff is a key part of my trust’s action plan to ensure we can realise the objectives set out in our strategy.

Definitely look into Let’s Go Zero. Their climate advisors can help cut through the jargon and create headspace for all leaders of sustainability. They are ready to tackle everything from carbon counting, climate action plans and embedding sustainability into any curriculum. Our trust challenged them to adapt their curriculum ideas to fit the five unique ones including our sensory curriculum. Our view was that this way, it can be rolled out across our whole trust. They also helped us think through big issues like energy use, transport, uniforms, and food because even your school lunch can be eco-friendly. 

It’s only fair to mention ASCL. Their inaugural Sustainability Conference was a treasure trove of sustainability knowledge and we left with our heads full of ideas.  Please try to attend this event in Manchester next June, it will be worth it.

Many MATs have a project management consultant with expertise in decarbonisation plans and Public Sector Decarbonisation Schemes. There is a lot of technical knowledge required to access this funding, so my tip would be to tap into their expertise to leverage the available funding out there. However, another good starting point with decarbonisation plans is to tap into your local university expertise. Nottingham Trent University has supported us with both carbon literacy and carbon management training delivered by professors in sustainability; they are keen to support schools as we all have a civic duty to do what we can to reach our net zero carbon targets.

External campaign groups: because who doesn’t love a calendar of events?
Keeping our whole trust on the same page (or calendar) is a mission, we were all doing lots of exciting things but not necessarily together. Enter our Climate Taskforce Annual Calendar of Events. There are so many to choose from: Compost Olympics, Pokémon Go Earth Clean-Up Day, and even the cheeky (pardon the pun) toilet roll brand with their brilliant social media campaign. 

The secret weapon in all this is Transform Our World. Their website is a goldmine for age-appropriate,fun climate activities that everyone can get involved in, plus, they’ve got lots of CPD resources for staff.  Our students were all about getting involved and I’ll take a deep dive into this in the next blog. 

The key here is to pick campaigns that resonate with your trust’s values and make them FUN. We chose campaigns that our whole school community can be involved in, such as Secondhand September, sustainable World Book Day, Volunteers’ Week and others where we could engage both parents and pupils.

Internal partnerships: teamwork makes the dream work
We knew if our sustainability bus was going to get anywhere, we needed a driver (or 14). That’s why we established our Climate Task Force. This is a group of passionate individuals who care about making a difference to the environment and will be instrumental in ensuring a trust-wide approach is developed across all our schools. 

We always knew that a success criteria for the strategy and action plan was getting top-down support. Governors, trustees, the Executive Group and thankfully we have a very supportive trust to back our campaign. Finally, we’re gearing up to meet and support headteachers and set up sustainability working groups across all our schools. 

Our biggest tip is to engage external and internal partners to show schools that it is possible to embed sustainability into the School Improvements plans and curriculum plans, without adding ‘extra’ work. 
For us, tapping into all these partners has meant that we are slowly turning the wheels of embedding sustainability into the culture fabric of our schools. Small steps can make the biggest difference.  
The ASCL Sustainability Conference 2025 will be returning on World Environment Day, 5 June 2025. Find out more and book your place here (our early bird offer is available until 10 December). 

If you can’t wait until our Sustainability Conference next year, get the ball rolling and join us for our webinar with Becky Valentine on Simplifying the DfE Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy. This was hosted live on 26 November 2024 and will be available for catch-up as a recording – keep an eye on our Events page for more details.