Greener activities

In our ongoing series, Aaron White, head of business services and sustainability at Oakland Care, shares small but effective changes that care homes can implement to become more sustainable. This month he focuses on greener activities

Enabling residents to contribute to the sustainable improvements you make as a home is a must. Many residents will want to take part in an activity that helps reduce waste and increase biodiversity, or even learn more about sustainable initiatives in the local area.

Introducing greener activities into your schedule doesn’t need to have a cost implication. Rather than hiring a singer who has been to the home many times before, why not use the money to fund something a bit different? Instead of doing the standard activity on the plan for Wednesday afternoon, think about whether there’s something alternative that helps promote sustainability in the home.

Some residents enjoy making things that will be used in the garden. At Oakland Care we have had successful sessions creating bird-feeders out of bottles, or a wormery from an old medication box. As always, all ideas are shared on our green committee and replicated in other homes. At one of our homes the residents even helped with the installation of a beehive.

Getting outside into the fresh air and interacting with nature is always great for health and wellbeing. Residents can sprinkle a few seeds, or even just watch and enjoy the session. When residents are part of the journey, it makes everything more meaningful.

Guest speakers are another great way to bring variety and education into the home. Rather than the standard ‘Elvis’ singer you might book every week, get someone in from the Wildlife Trust or the Forestry Commission to talk about local tree planting or biodiversity projects.

Think about introducing a newspaper recycling station on each floor of the care home. In one of our homes, residents are engaged and help collect and process the recyclables such as newspapers, if they would like to and are able. It’s enjoyable and seen as a valuable contribution.

Separating recycling and generally living in a green way is becoming the normal thing to do at home, or at least it should be, and of course we want residents to live as they would at home, as much as possible.

To improve your activity schedule further, think about introducing a themed ‘green day’ in the care home, where the focus of the whole day’s activities is on sustainability. Activities and decorations can be green-themed, food for lunch might be vegan or from a local sustainable store, and the whole day aims to raise awareness of sustainability

– as well as being fun. It doesn’t need to cost anything, just an alternative to activities you would be running anyway, and a green day can spark further ideas for activities to take place throughout the year.

At Oakland Care, our own green day in September 2020 morphed into ‘green week’ the following year, and now the whole of September is ‘greener month’.

Residents are often as keen as the team members to be more sustainable and we all need to work together to move forward, by creating a culture throughout that really cares.