CHARITY & COMMUNITY
W e are constantly bombarded with messages about human damage to the planet. A welter of facts hits us daily: did you know, for instance, that if all the paper that we, as a College, used over the course of a year was piled up, it would be twice the height of the Gherkin? That’s a telling fact. Too often, when walking around the campus, it is painfully obvious that we waste tremendous amounts of energy and resources – from leaving projectors switched on in classrooms all night, to piles of food discarded every lunchtime, to the central heating in some rooms buzzing redundantly away all through the hot summer months. The College is at the forefront of new ideas and innovation – our new technologically equipped Laboratory is a clear example – however, we have, until recently, been somewhat lacking in commitment to sustainability. That’s changing. There is a real drive now to make the school more eco-friendly and to educate both students and staff about the role we all have to play in our world. This has recently led to the formation of the Dulwich Eco-Committee, a sustainability steering group with representation from students in Years 7 to 13, led by Senior Prefects Michael Bacon, Jon Davies, Tom Lui and Jack Kurtulus. As a student-led body, our main aim is to become an eco-school and achieve ’Green Flag status’ – an internationally recognised qualification awarded to the most sustainable schools across 64 different countries. We hope to add Dulwich to that list very soon. To gain the Green Flag, the College will have to meet eight assessment criteria – we need to draft an Eco-Charter, carry out regular environmental audits, publish an Action Plan and implement it – both within the College and in consultation with the wider community. An external professional will then assess our efforts. The work has already begun. The Committee has devised a series of projects to be implemented over the course of the coming year. Our plan includes small-scale programmes, such as improved recycling facilities, to bigger initiatives, like the creation of a ‘Green Fingers’ club for the Junior School, which will include planting vegetables and creating bird feeders in order to foster biodiversity. We also plan to make a donation to schools in developing countries: our aim is not only to save waste here at home, but to help build a more sustainable world abroad, too. In this, education is key, and we will seek to provide books to children in developing countries who may otherwise not have access to them.
If all the paper that we, as a College, used over the course of a year was piled up, it would be twice the height of the Gherkin
One of the most exciting prospects for Dulwich in pursuing this course is that we gain access to an international community of like-minded, eco-friendly schools. The benefits of such a relationship are already obvious to us: visits by our School Captains to both DC Shanghai and DC Suzhou have helped us appreciate the amazing work being done in the Dulwich International Network. On their trips, the Vice Captains were particularly impressed by the commitment they encountered to holistic sustainability, whether environmental or even social; it is an integral component in our partnership schools, and something we hope to emulate here at the College. Emulating best practice is very virtuous – but we also want the process to be fun, so the current Head boys and girls from across the Dulwich Commonwealth are working towards to a friendly competition to rank the most sustainable school. May the best Dulwich win! Our changing landscape abroad is reflected by transformations at home. As the College undergoes a major redevelopment as part of the 2019 Masterplan, we are in a unique position to improve the sustainability of our campus. A particularly fascinating project is the Thinking Garden, to be designed by the same architects responsible for the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. We each have personal experience of this process of transformation. I used to have lessons in dark portacabins – now, I’m learning in the inspiring Informatics suite, where I can write on every surface. We therefore think it time that the Dulwich community focuses on the major role it has to play in making sure that there is a sustainable future for our facilities, and a sustainability mindset amongst our students. We all have a role to play in improving the world we inhabit and we will only learn how to do so if we are challenged – as citizens of a local and a global community – to understand the question of sustainability and to take concrete action to achieve it.
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