SUSTAINABILITY

SUSTAINABILITY AT NLCS

Minimising our impact on the environment is something that we are very passionate about and in February we completed our Environmental Strategy Plan with a commitment to becoming carbon neutral by 2030. Our plan covers eight key areas of focus including education and engagement, on-site energy consumption, waste, food and water, travelling to school and Biodiversity.

A great deal of our environmental initiatives are led by our students; we have an active Green Team in Year 11, a senior Environmental Awareness Society and NLCS is a member of the London Schools Eco-network, a collective group of like-minded students tackling the issues of climate change and our environment. Members of these groups also attend our Environment Committee, along with teaching and support staff. Our Fridays for Future Club have encouraged students to use their voice by starting petitions, writing to MPs and raising environmental awareness both in and out of school.

Our carbon footprint has been calculated and independently audited by OneCarbonWorld, part of the UN Climate Neutral Now programme. This year, our students voted for Trees for Life as our offsetting organisation. We are also delighted that we are one of the first schools in the world to work with the UN Climate Neutral Now Initiative to become a carbon neutral organisation.

We are well on our way to becoming a certified Eco School:

We have a full recycling programme and our paper is FSC certified.

Our Catering Department is committed to ensuring that all leftover food is collected and redistributed, our fish is MSC certified, we have removed beef and lamb from the lunch menu and our products do not contain palm oil.

Solar panels have been installed and our electricity comes from a green supplier. Everyone in school is encouraged to save energy by switching off lights and electrical equipment when not in use and all computers are shut down automatically in the evenings.

Over 600 students continue to use our coach service every day, helping to reduce the number of cars on the roads and the Homerun App was successfully launched to parents and staff. ‘Stop idling’ signs are around the School site to remind drivers to turn off their engines and we have installed charging stations for electric cars.

At Canons, we have lots of animal and plant species that call NLCS home. Our gardens are full of pollinator-friendly flowers and, with the help of our wonderful Grounds team, we are cultivating green-fingered students with Gardening Club. Our beautiful wild spaces around the School have been deliberately left un-kept encouraging wildlife. We only use peat-free products and compost in all our green waste on-site.

NEWS

NLCS students have joined the London Schools Eco-network, a collective group of like-minded students tackling the issues of climate change and our environment. Student eco-teams meet weekly via Zoom to make plans for future projects, including a joint video presentation and an MP email campaign for World Environment Day and a Virtual Schools COP26 (global climate conference). In addition to this during the Summer Term, the Environmental Committee hosted a week of online events including debates, environmentally friendly cooking tasters and lectures to involve the whole school community.