Chesterfield College Group is committed to integrating equity, social justice, and inclusion within our broader sustainability efforts. Recognising that disadvantaged, deprived groups are most affected in our local community, we created innovative approaches to engage diverse groups in our ‘eat-well’ projects supporting the sustainability development goals Initiatives include community engagement programmes targeting under-represented groups, leading practices that enhance access and participation in sustainable cooking and eating programmes with our staff and students conducting research to address barriers and challenges that affect deprived/people premium families within our communities.
Our ongoing commitment to embedding equality and inclusion within sustainability practices is evident in our impactful initiatives that push boundaries and challenge the status quo, fostering a more inclusive approach to a sustainable future for our community through our students and staff collaborating with local school children and our local charity working with adult SEND needs.
Local school children learn how to make sustainable and healthy meals in our college kitchens.
What it Means to Win
We are extremely honoured to be recognised by these Green Gown Awards due to our ongoing commitment to embedding equality and inclusion within sustainability practices where it is evident that our impactful initiatives push boundaries and challenge the status quo, fostering a more inclusive approach to a sustainable future for our community through our students and staff collaborating with local school children and our local charities working with adult SEND needs.
We continue to drive their goal to Net Zero through our Green Skills Strategy Group members, staff teams, students, leadership team, Governors and employers who are passionate about the future of our community.
Caleb Wilkes (Vocational Lead of Hospitality & Professional Cookery), Michaela Greaves (Assistant Principal Teaching, Learning & Quality Improvement) and Lou Mycroft (Vice Chair of Governors and Lead Governor for Green Skills) celebrate our Green Gown accolade at the glitzy ceremony in Birmingham.
Top 3 Learnings
Our Green Skills Strategy Group is led by our Lead Governor for Green Skills who is also Chair of our Standards & Performance Committee, ensuring that green skills is an integrated part of the student journey. Our governor has a real passion for green skills outside of her work at college and ensures that we are driven as a college to own a theme each from the roadmap.
As a college we learned the importance of stakeholder collaboration as we, as a college community, progress along the Further Education Climate Action Road Map. Sustainability targets, led by governors and senior management support and drive the development of sustainability projects across our organisation. Successful outcomes require the full buy in and support from staff, students, employers, and governors. This collective effort ensured the success of the project and demonstrated the power of action within the community and involvement in driving sustainable practices.
Through this sustainability project, we saw that educating school students and our local community on preparing healthy, nutritious meals from surplus food not only fosters environmental awareness but also promotes practical life skills and wellbeing.
Our three top learnings from implementing the project.
1. Sharing the project across the organisation, supported staff to embrace a cross-college approach to volunteering
2. Setting targets at the start of the project supported evidencing and measuring impact
3. Business planning included incorporating green skills KPIs in September for integration in staff development reviews
