COP26, Eco-Education and Green Cookery Lessons – A Thought Post!

The COP26 Summit in Glasgow has really got me thinking this week. It’s got me thinking eco-education, Classroom Kitchen and our carbon-footprint, food waste, the environment in general and how eco-friendly is our education system?

This blog post is a thought post, nothing more. It’s a bit of a ramble from myself, the owner of Classroom Kitchen – James Deveney. Please feel free to share, like, comment or even leave the page now if this isn’t something of interest – I won’t be offended!

We hear time and time again through the media, politics and protesters about the pollution coming from factories, cars and plastics but realistically, there’s so many other ways too that we’re polluting the environment. And yes, it is us and our actions that pollute the planet.

I think with such focus from the media on certain types of pollution, we almost become blind or ignorant to our other everyday actions that have an impact too. Even typing away on this laptop now and yourselves reading this on your phone, tablet or computer – we are using electricity and unless renewable, we’re causing pollution. I read an incredibly interesting article on Science Focus (click for article) that noted that sending 65 emails is the equivalence of driving 1km in the car! Wow!

So considering this, almost every one of our digital-age daily activities is going to have some sort of negative impact on the environment. Home, school or work, everyone is leaving a carbon-footprint but some are definitely leaving bigger ones than others.

I was thinking back to my time in the classroom and thinking about what I see in classrooms and schools through our cookery workshops. So many schools are trying their best to educate pupils on being eco-friendly, the environment and pollution. It’s great to see. I’m naming this ‘eco-education’.

I think schools are definitely doing a lot to get pupils thinking and noticing what behaviours affect our planet. I also believe there’s probably a few bits missed in our ignorance. A lot of the time, like I mentioned before, we’re seeing the ‘Big News’ – ‘Plastics in the Ocean’, ‘Overfishing’ and ‘Overusing Fossil Fuels’. A lot of the time we educate pupils on the bigger picture (which is ever so important) but maybe not so much on the one right in front of us. Eco-education has to be relevant, it has to be in the immediate lives of your pupils.

What:

• in your classroom affects the environment?
• causes carbon emissions?
• isn’t re-usable or not serving much purpose?

I feel that it’s important to think and understand the bigger picture, the end goal, but more so to know what are the small differences and the small actions that we can have in school and at home to help make an impact on the ‘bigger picture’.

I’ve definitely thought this myself with our Classroom Kitchen sessions and even so with my own behaviours in the office at home – I’ll come back to this later.

Firstly, I think whatever changes we target have to be manageable! Schools are already overloaded with responsibilities and teachers have a large enough workload to manage. Reasonable changes would be things that tie into the school routine. They might not even be changes but simply things we become more aware of, such as switching the lights off as we leave a classroom or turning off the interactive whiteboard when it’s not in use.

With such a digital world in place and new technologies finding their way into the classroom, it’s important we’re being cautious of using these when important to the learning and not just all of the time. Think of all those iPads and tablets that spend most of the day plugged in charging up! I think back to myself teaching and sometimes I would have the whiteboard on, my laptop plugged in and on, iPads charging, class computers on, one of those video/camera-thingy’s that projects pupils work onto the board and probably 2 or 3 more digital devices too.

Let’s be switching things off when not in use and let’s get our pupils doing the same. We need to be embracing eco-education ourselves to eco-educate our pupils.

A lot of modern technology is probably quite environmentally efficient, however it definitely adds up and has its impact! Does the carbon problem stop with the lights and machines in the classroom?

When you think about it… no! At the end of the day, if we’re writing in books, using paper, using disposable materials, printing things and using ink, then all of that has its impact on our carbon footprints too! And don’t get me started on the endless unused resources that get thrown and stacked in the Art and DT cupboard!

I always think back to the ‘scrap paper’ tray that we had in my classroom that we’d allow the pupils to use when it was ‘wet break’. One sign that should have rang the alarm bells though was that the pile grew faster than it could be reused!

I think it’s something to be opened up to the class to find out what the pupils think! If we can get them onboard early then they’ll help us too. They’re always happy to tell a teacher off for leaving their laptop switched on!

Let me know in the comments what changes your school plans to make or has already made!

As a small company, it’s not something I’ve ever considered. Being a one-man band for the majority of the businesses life, it seems pretty easy to track the impact we have on the environment around us… at least it seemed so!

I know fully well that I need to be more aware to things like leaving my laptop on, not switching the lights off and unnecessarily sending emails but COP26 really made me think about my company’s bigger footprint! What about the suppliers we use? How about the food waste in our school sessions? What about our packaging and delivery process for our equipment?

A lot of the time I’m focused on what I do in the business but actually my business is used by many schools, teachers, pupils and community groups and so it also made me think about how they’re using our service and whether that end product adds to our bigger footprint. But then, I thought the other way too. What is the carbon footprint of our suppliers from which we receive our equipment and ingredients?

So it made me realise that sometimes as a small business we’re only looking at that middle element, the bit we’re hands on with.

Having considered the above, I want this company to move forward in the most environmentally friendly way possible. With so many world leaders signing deals and making pledges at COP26, I feel it’s important that we do too.

We pledge to:

• produce guidance on food waste, with suggestions for uses (after-care) for our Classroom Kitchen Online sessions (by July 2022)
• look closer into our supplier’s carbon footprint and whether we’re using environmentally conscious companies (by April 2022)
• that if we find certain suppliers to be emitting carbon above a reasonable level, to make a switch to an alternative supplier (by September 2022)

I’d very much love it if you have any ideas on how we can be better as a company, any small changes we can make or things we can do differently! If you want to share any of the things your business, school or the changes that you’re making at home then please do in the comments below or email us at admin@classroom-kitchen.co.uk! Let’s talk eco-education!

I look forward to sharing our progress with the above pledge as the year goes on!

For anyone who doesn’t know me or hasn’t met me before, I’m James Deveney, owner of Classroom Kitchen and former Primary Teacher.

Contact:

Email: james@classroom-kitchen.co.uk

Twitter: /educooking_MrD