The Consortium

SCHOOLS BACK GREEN AGENDA DESPITE HALF BEING UNAWARE OF GOVERNMENT STRATEGY

Teachers increasingly becoming “sustainability champions”, says new survey from The Consortium

Green issues are high on most schools‘ agendas despite almost half of teachers being unaware of the government‘s strategy to promote sustainability in education.

Two years and a major publicity campaign since the Department for Children, Schools and Families‘ eight “doorways to sustainability” guidelines were launched, and still just under half of teachers say they don‘t know what they are.

That is one of the findings of a new “green schools survey” of teachers carried out by the leading independent provider of equipment supplies to the education sector, The Consortium. The survey was conducted with teachers across the UK and included secondary, primary, first and junior schools.

Regardless of the government campaign‘s perceived failings, a massive 92 per cent of teachers who took part in the survey said their school made a conscious effort to incorporate sustainability into the curriculum where appropriate.

Another 65 per cent said efforts had been made to ascertain their schools‘ carbon footprints and 88 per cent said staff and pupils were encouraged to be more energy-conscious.

No doubt encouraged by Jamie Oliver‘s campaign for healthy and locally-produced food for our children and young people, 40 per cent of schools said they now maintain a vegetable patch and grow their own food. Meanwhile 91 per cent said their schools actively encourage healthy eating among students and made fresh, organic fruit and vegetables available.

Brian Potter, Sales and Marketing Director at The Consortium, said: “Clearly schools up and down the country are putting sustainability at the core of most of what they do, but it appears the government‘s campaign hasn‘t been the driving factor here.”

Global warming and climate change are rarely out of the headlines, and this seems to have had an effect on schools‘ attitudes towards the environment, with nearly two thirds (61 per cent) saying efforts to raise awareness of sustainability issues among pupils had increased in the last six months alone.

However, just 56 per cent say they have a formal recycling policy and almost half (42 per cent) recycle no more than a quarter of their waste, yet 61 per cent said they had someone responsible for sustainability in the school.

Other findings include:

A large majority (83 per cent) of schools said they had not taken advantage of funding or grant opportunities

Nearly three quarters (73 per cent) confirming they had sustainable transport policies and encouraged staff, parents and pupils to walk, cycle or use public transport to get to school

When asked to compare how pupils travelled to school now compared to five years ago, 29 per cent said more were walking, 11 per cent said more were using public transport and 8 per cent said more were cycling to and from school.

81 per cent said no more than a quarter at their school currently walked, cycled or used public transport to get to school

ENDS 21st January 2009

For further information please contact Louie Hadley, Sturgess Van Damme, on 01275 349011 or email louie@sturgessvandamme.co.uk