Creating Value In Schools
Listen to the recording (25 minutes) or read an edited version below.
Paul Edmond is Chief Finance and Sustainability Officer at Heart Academies Trust in Bedfordshire. The sustainability part of my role came in probably halfway through the COVID outbreak, when we sat back and said: ‘What's the real purpose of a trust? What's the purpose of us being together?’ Because we saw through COVID how we had to work quite differently and really bring all the schools together to support each other and the families and the communities around us. We revisited the values of the trust, what we stood for and our ambitions. One of them was our role in taking action to improve the environment for the children and young people coming through our schools. I have a background in biology, and have worked in charities for much of my career, some of which were working with vulnerable families and communities in the UK and across the world. I saw the impact climate change is having on a lot of those communities. So from that background and my passion for that field, I said, that's my role! I want to take responsibility for driving sustainability through the trust, and also think about our role, regionally and nationally, and having a bigger influence on the wider sector, knowing that lots of schools and trusts haven't started this journey yet, or are just starting and need help and support. We started the conversation with our trustees and governors about why we felt this was important and got lots of buy-in and support from them, which is fantastic. We then started conversations with all our staff, bringing them together, talking about why and really engaging them in how they could be involved. That led to lots of conversations with different departments, because I think very early on we said this isn't about one thing. This is about everything. This is about decarbonizing our estates. This is about changing how we use our outdoor spaces to improve biodiversity, outdoor learning, and engagement with nature. This is about adapting our buildings because we know climate change is happening. Are our buildings going to be safe and secure for 10, 20, 30 years ahead? We know that by 2050, 80-90 percent of the school estate is going to be the school estate we've got right now. So we need to look after it and make sure it's resilient. How do we green our curriculum when actually there's not huge amounts of research and evidence to show how best to do that? We know why we need to do it, but we also need to know how. And how do we support green careers? It's fascinating, it's interesting, it's frustrating – but we're making progress So, a lot of strands! We said very early on that this can't be one person – it has to be everybody, and that means talking to everybody. It means talking to catering teams and thinking about the food we serve, and about their role in reducing gas and electricity usage, and reducing food waste. We talked to our finance team and thought about our procurement policy. What are we buying? We know approximately half of our carbon footprint comes from the stuff we buy. So are we buying sustainably, responsibly? Who are we buying from? Are they responsible organisations? Do we actually need it? Can we reduce what we're buying? Can we repair things? All those really important conversations. We talked to HR and thought about our people strategy, which links into wellbeing and the health of our staff, which again links into outdoor space. We've done the big capital stuff. We've put solar panels everywhere; we've got LED lights all the way through our building management system. We’ve invested in those building management systems to make sure they’re fit for purpose, and have reduced our demand for heating and electricity. There are lots of quick wins that can reduce your carbon footprint and reduce the damage that schools do to the environment We've looked at the outdoor space and brought in specialists to advise on planting in areas that we can then manage going forward. There are things we haven’t done so well. We planted trees in the wrong place and they didn't survive. It's been a learning process over the years to realise that you do need everybody involved, and you need specialist support in certain areas. It’s a journey – and we're certainly not all the way through it, and we're learning all the time. And we're trying to listen to other trusts, schools and specialists, to try and bring on board what they're doing. It's fascinating, it's interesting, it's frustrating – but we're making progress. There are more established business cases now to support investment in renewable energy, in building management systems and in LED, because you can see the payback. There are more ways available now that make it more affordable to schools and trusts. However, there is a funding gap in schools and trusts. There is simply not enough money coming into the system to make sure all our buildings can be net zero, fully decarbonised and resilient to climate change. I think that’s well recognised, and while we’re hearing positive noises from the government, whether that's going to continue and be substantial enough, time will tell. In the meantime though, and I think this is the important message, there are lots of little steps we can all take. We have to act and do as much as we can now Just because we haven’t got the money to put in lots of air source heat pumps, doesn’t mean that we can't think about our suppliers, who we're buying from, or the energy we've got. Are we using it effectively? The waste we create, whether it's energy or food or resources, can we reduce that down? I think there's lots of quick wins that can reduce your carbon footprint and reduce the damage that schools do to the environment before all the big capital money comes in. Ultimately, there will need to be more money put into the system. But we can't sit around and wait for that. We have to act and do as much as we can now. We look for the co benefits – food is an example of a triple win. By reducing waste, we had less food going to landfill. We reduced cost, because we weren’t buying food which then got chucked out. We also partnered with a charity called Olio. Food that’s left over at the end of lunchtime, that's still perfectly edible, is packaged up, and Olio comes and takes it away for redistribution in the local community. So, in trying to address one thing we're addressing three or four things. We find that quite often with climate action – that you start thinking about one thing, and realise that has a knock on effect. Uniform is another good example. If you're thinking about the sustainability of school uniform, and reducing its carbon footprint, what you’ll probably be doing at the same time is reducing the cost of the uniform, and making it more accessible to families. And then, if we're making a cost saving on uniforms, what we've done is set that money aside for a hardship fund, to pay for the uniform for new starters when they come into school. So we're reducing any sort of stigma or financial pressure on those families. It's just about unpicking everything we do, and asking how we can make it better for everybody – better for people, better for the planet. If you want to reduce the carbon footprint of your school uniform, for example, start by thinking about the supplier you work with, and look at their sustainability credentials. What are they doing to reduce the carbon footprint of the clothes they're making? How much water and energy goes into making those clothes? Where are they made? Who's making them? Where are they being shipped? The DfE has put out guidance on trying to reduce the number of very tailored, very bespoke, costly uniform items; these things also generally have a higher carbon footprint because of the extra manufacturing that needs to go into them. Part of it is really understanding the supply chain of that uniform, and what each step is adding in terms of carbon. And then almost reverse engineering again. What can we take out that still meets the needs of the school to have a good, strong uniform that's not going to wear out within a year? Can it be in a good enough condition that when it’s finished with, it’s passed on to other people? Can it be recycled back into the system, so that other children and families can benefit from it? Let’s illustrate co-benefits with another example: investing in biodiversity. So, we've got fields, like every school has. If we can invest in those fields to improve biodiversity, for example rewilding, adding trees, adding hedging… the benefits are huge. It's better for the planet, so there’s a tick in the box for that. There are also benefits in terms of the adaptation and resilience of your school estate. Trees and hedging generally cool your estate, so, say you’re in a large urban area, which is going to suffer from heat, and we’ve got hotter temperatures on the way, then by cooling your environment you’re creating a better place for children and staff to be. If you've got potential drainage problems in the area, putting more trees and hedging in there reduces that flood risk. So that’s adaptation, resilience and biodiversity ticked. What about how we look after people? One of the best ways of supporting wellbeing is improving connectedness to nature. We're creating areas where staff can relax and catch their breath a little, and where students can have a peaceful, calm environment. If we're then thinking about catering, well, with that biodiversity we're adding, there's absolutely no problem at all in making it edible. Food which the children can collect, bring in and eat, and be used by the catering team. Happy days! And, if we can create environments that complement what's being taught, say in a biology or geography lesson, so the teachers can take the children outside and actually engage with what they're being taught in the classroom, then you're enhancing the teaching and learning. So many different things in just doing one thing, but you've got to do that one thing really well. Are we engaging the children? Are we engaging the teachers? Are we engaging the support staff? Are we engaging specialists who can teach us how to look after it? There's no point in doing it if it's just going to die over summer, because it’s an expensive investment. It's about engaging all the right people in that decision making, that then can contribute to a fantastic outcome for lots of people. These days, ‘Can we afford it?’ is the very last question on my list. Which might seem like an odd thing for a chief finance officer to say. But we think through the benefits first, ask all the questions and then consider the cost. Successful organisations invest in their people and they invest in the planet Also, there is help available. If you want to do some rewilding, then the Woodland Trust gives away trees. Our local councils give away trees for planning too. The Education Nature Park also gives grants to support biodiversity – it’s a great resource for schools, and it’s free. Learning through Landscapes is another organisation that schools can really engage with; they bring that expertise around how you use your outdoor space more effectively to support teaching and learning. I think it was Harvard Business School that first proposed that sustainable organisations need three P’s: profit, people, planet. Your business won’t work unless you’ve got healthy people. Thinking about the environment supports healthy people and profits. If you've got those three P's working together in harmony, that's what a sustainable organisation looks like. Successful organisations invest in their people and they invest in the planet. For us in schools, financial efficiency might be a better phrase than profit. Or maybe pounds! In terms of managing our budgets, having those three P’s as a business model can really work. There are plenty of organisations out there offering support and resources. I’m very fortunate in co-chairing the operations group of the UK Schools Sustainability Network. We offer free advice, support, guidance, and a place to collaborate and share. There’s a website, online network meetings, and we’re trying to engage other stakeholder groups in the education sector to support sustainability. Let's Go Zero has regional climate advisors that schools can tap into and use – our climate advisor is just amazing. Climate Ambassadors is a new and growing initiative, which engages other sectors to offer support and advice to schools for free. The DfE now has a sustainability hub with resources for schools. Count Your Carbon is a free tool that schools can use to measure their carbon footprint. I think the hardest area is climate education – actually teaching the children. There is support out there in terms of greening the curriculum, for example Students Organising for Sustainability UK. We work with the CAPE alliance (Climate Adapted Pathways for Education), who really think about and research how to deliver an effective climate curriculum. It’s important to think about how you actually teach about climate in a classroom, to make sure that you get the right outcomes for children – so you don't create anxiety, but you do create behavior change. That means those children then go out into the community and live and breathe the behaviors you want into the next generation. I’m a big fan of the podcast Outrage + Optimism, which gives a balance between ‘here's the bad stuff that we can all get angry about because things aren't changing as fast as we want’, mixed in with lots of good stuff about real positive change that's happening in the world. Thoughtbox Education has a series, Two Inconvenient Women, where they're unpicking some of the big things that are happening in the world by trying to bring it back to how we look after ourselves, how we look after each other, and how we look after the planet. I think their Triple WellBeing® concept is just brilliant – it goes back to that model of you won’t get a healthy planet unless you’ve got healthy people, and you don’t get healthy people unless you’re looking after yourself, your community, your team. All those really good things!Key takeaways
From Chief Finance Officer to Chief Finance AND Sustainability Officer
Start the conversations
Capital investments and learning from mistakes
Make the business case and find the quick wins
Look for the co-benefits: a triple win for food
Unpick and understand your supply chains
Make decisions based on co-benefits: biodiversity
Weighing up the costs and funding support
The three P’s: profit, people, planet
Supporting organisations
Recommended listening
Links and resources
