Environmental Sustainability Policy - College Nurseries

LEICESTER COLLEGE POLICY STATEMENT

Leicester College is committed to the principles of sustainability and minimising the impact of its activities on the environment. The College aims to achieve continuous improvements in environmental performance; sustainable and social procurement; reducing waste; minimising pollution and reducing consumption with a Net Zero date set of 2030. This policy sets out the College’s commitment to promoting sustainable development and complying with relevant legislation.

The College Nurseries will engage Leicester College Services to help them support sustainable initiatives.

1. Policy

   • Leicester College Day Nurseries advocate supporting children to learn about sustainable practices and foster respect and care for the living and non-living environment.   Children are able to develop positive attitudes and values about sustainable practices by exploring solutions to environmental issues, learning about the world around them and how to protect it and watching adults role model sustainable practices.   

2. We promote a holistic, open-ended curriculum which explores ideas and practices for environmental sustainability and helps children understand the interdependence between people and the environment by:

   • 2.1 Helping children to explore nature through art, play, stories and shared experiences. 

   • 2.2 Supporting children to experience the natural environment through natural materials like wood, stone, sand and recycled materials. 

   • 2.3 Helping children to learn about water conservation, energy efficiency and waste reduction through play-based activities and adult interactions.

   • 2.4 Going on nature walks and learning about plants they see in the local area.

   • 2.5 Supporting the environment by learning how to grow and nurture plants in the nursery garden and discovering all about the food cycle by growing, harvesting, and cooking food for our nursery menu.

   • 2.6 Developing a recycling area and encouraging children to share recycling ethos into the home environment. 

3. Nursery staff are encouraged to take extra care during their normal duties by avoiding unnecessary or extravagant use of services, time, energy, etc. We will embed sustainability into all aspects of the operations including:   

   • 3.1.    Be careful and sensible in use of resources including consumables like wipes, hand towels, cleaning materials etc

   • 3.2.    Being careful and sensible in use of learning resources like paint, paper, craft, etc.

   • 3.3.    Recycling materials for art and creative activities and encouraging parents to bring in their recycling materials for the same use. 

   • 3.4.    When children take home models from recycled materials, encouraging parents/carers to recycle these materials if they do not keep them. 

   • 3.5.    Considering our carbon footprint when purchasing materials

   • 3.6.    Shopping local where possible

   • 3.7.    Turning off equipment and lights when not in use

   • 3.8.    Not leaving equipment on standby

   • 3.9.    Print sensibly and only if required

   • 310. Unplugging equipment at the end of the day

   • 3.11. Using energy saving wash cycles

   • 3.12. Using environmentally friendly cleaning products where possible

   • 3.13. Using environmentally friendly washing products

   • 3.14. Using water saving strategies and ensuring taps are turned off and leaks fixed asap.

4. We discourage the use of food as a play material: instead, we encourage activities which involve preparing and tasting different types of food. The exception is where food might otherwise be thrown away such as out of date pasta or flour. 

5. Working together with all our parents and partners will help our environment to be more sustainable and make it a better place for our future generations to grow up in. We assess our nursery’s impact on the environment on a regular basis and discuss procedures we can put into place to counteract this impact.  

6. Communication and review

   • 6.1 This policy will be shared with parents and reviewed every three years.