E is for Environmental Impact
Would you like the children you educate and care for to have a long and prosperous life? I do. And not just for my grandchildren, but for all the thousands of children in our nurseries. Children have a right that “their best interests must be a top priority in all decisions and actions that affect them” (Article 3 of the UN Convention). And UN Article 24 says that “every child has a right to clean water, nutritious food and a clean environment.” Therefore, whether our government, local authorities or Ofsted support this or not, I feel responsible for doing my part to protect their environment for the future, and I’m hoping to inspire you to feel similarly.
I’ve learnt a fair bit since becoming passionate about children’s environmental rights; having a book published by Routledge, achieving B.Corp, receiving a Queen’s Award, achieving OEMP Education for sustainable citizenship awards, Eco Schools Green Flags, and Plastic Free School awards along the way.
I love to share my tips — as the more of us on this journey, the better for our children. But where do you start? Perhaps with bills, or carbon footprint, or with risk assessments, mitigations and adaptations; or with awards and marketing, or just with passion? I’m going to cover all five, but maybe one will suit you better than the others?
Starting with bills (biggest financial impact)
Have a look at your biggest bills apart from staffing and mortgage/rent, and you are likely to find some pretty hefty bills for supplies such as electricity, gas, waste, cleaning & craft, furniture, nappies, and possibly expenses for travelling.
Pick one. You need to find out where you are now, (eg cost per month on a reading not an estimate) and then set a target to decrease it. Imagine how you will feel if you cut any of your bills by 20% or even 50%. This IS possible, and in doing so you are protecting the environment by using less, so everyone wins. Just by making a decision to cut ‘X’, writing it up on your board or wall, and sharing your vision with your team to work out how you can do this.
Here are some of my top tips:
If you want to cut electricity and/or gas
Ensure you and your staff use natural light as much as possible – turn the lights OFF, especially if you go out or aren’t using the room. Don’t underestimate how much difference you can make just with tweaking adult behaviour. Reminders and then nagging will be crucial, as anyone with teenagers knows!
Change to LED lightbulbs – and fewer of them than you had before as they are brighter as well as 80% cheaper to run than halogen. Fit warm LED lighting for relaxing, and cool white to boost your productivity and focus. They pay for themselves within a year, so don’t wait for the landlord to do it.
Make sure heating, air-conditioning, fans and lighting aren’t on when you aren’t there. So many of my nurseries had heating on long into the evening and even weekends unnecessarily, wasting a ton of money. Even nearly 20 years into cost savings on electricity we found a nursery had left an immersion heater on, unnecessarily, on a recent energy-saving audit. Smart metres and data by the half hour are the easiest way to identify where the opportunities to save are, just match usage to opening hours, but your attention can do similar if you are on-site, or can visit out of hours.
Encourage staff and children to wear clothes appropriate for the temperature, as they would for outside play, so you can minimise heating and air conditioning, and don’t react quickly to someone “feeling hot/cold”, rather use a room thermometer having agreed a range of say 16-19 degrees with your team, as one person having a hot flush, or suffering a slow metabolism, doesn’t mean you MUST turn the heating/aircon up or down for everyone.
If you want to cut waste
See if you can cut the frequency of your general waste bin collection by making sure anything recyclable goes in the recycling. We found many of our nurseries had a half-empty bin being collected every week once they had done the sorting properly, and moved to a full bin collection every fortnight, saving 25% of the bill. Waste companies won’t tell you if you are having a half-empty bin collected, but they will certainly let you know if it’s overweight and will bill you. Less rubbish to general waste/incineration or even worse landfill, and more to recycling is good news for the environment too.
Simple things like buying chemicals that aren’t watered down, and diluting them on site, asking about returning containers for recycling, and reducing packaging, ability to purchase spares, buying or acquiring second hand from charity shops, carboots, parents and the community all save the environment a little bit because you avoid buying new or over-packaged items. It’s hard work, so be pragmatic, but pat yourself on the back and celebrate with each little result, whether it’s buying refillable glue sticks, or no one-use shoe covers, it’s all good. Do be aware of the word biodegradable, it means nothing without qualification under what circumstances! Home compostable on the other hand, is great. Buying locally made and in season should be a strong preference. And invest in products that are going to last a long time if you can.
Using carbon footprint
The government has committed to us being zero carbon by 2030, and Tops Day Nurseries has been netzero since 2023. I strongly suggest you have your bookkeeper work out your carbon footprint rather than do it yourself, it’s easy from the invoices and the calculations on the government website. You will need the answer in Tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (TCOe)
Starting with risk assessments, and their mitigations and adaptations
You will all be familiar with risk assessments, so just reflect on whether risks such as high winds, tree damage, fire, drought, floods should be added. Are you ready to adapt to these? Is there anything you can do to mitigate, ie anything you can do to reduce your carbon footprint and therefore reduce climate change or do you need to plant different things in your garden (eg for shade or drought), or to teach children about growing food, or bring in a tree surgeon for a tree that could fall on your nursery or playground?
Awards, certificates and verification
There are many, some more appropriate than others, some cost more than others, and you can see from the above which ones Tops have done. None are perfect for our sector, but all of them will encourage an audit of what you do now, identification of what you might do, and will inform an action plan if you choose to engage. We are currently working with “OMEP” on “Education for Sustainable Citizenship as it requires parental engagement and for the Gold award, working with nurseries in the Global South to help balance our over consumption with their under consumption.
Or you could start your journey with your passion
What is the impact on yours and your children’s quality of life and now into the future? Perhaps the quality of the air (causing asthma), the quality of local river water (causing illness), the toxins in fish (microplastics, mercury etc.) causing infertility and cancers. Share your concerns with your colleagues and parents and come up with a plan, perhaps enforcing no-idling outside your nursery, or writing to the local Waterboard about overflowing sewage.
If you have questions or want to engage, visit www.GECCO.org.uk, a registered charity focused on bringing more sustainability to our early years settings.
The ABC of Nursery Management
- FREE Download
Share this article
About the Author
Cheryl Hadland, MD of Hadland Care Group, oversees Tops Day Nurseries and Aspire Training Team, while also spearheading GECCO, a charity championing sustainability in Early Years Education. A passionate diver, Cheryl witnessed ocean plastic's devastation, driving her to establish GECCO in 2017. She now educates the early years sector on sustainable practices.
Effectively Communicating Price Increases to Parents
Why Cultural Capital Matters in Early Years Education
Exciting New Medication Features on iConnect!
Case Study: Little Faces Nursery