Six Simple Steps to Starting Sustainability
Step 1
Familiarisation with own environment
Quick questions around the room – eg as warm-up – where are you at? These can of course
be adapted for different age groups and experiences

Name your neighbours
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What time did the sun rise this morning

Name three types of edible wild food that you could find and eat
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Where does your waste go?
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What were the main ingredients of your supper last night

Which country did the food that you ate this morning come from?
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Is the moon waxing or waning at the moment?

When did it last rain?
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Which parts of your rubbish can you recycle?
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Name four wild animals that you can hear or see in your area

Name five trees in your area
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In which direction is North?

Were the stars out last night?
PP So, just how much…
Why is this so important ? What do we mean by it and why do we have a responsibility to
teach our children about it?
PP We are travelling at breakneck speed…
Discuss why important to know about our environment – what do we mean by our environment
– concept of there being different scales, local, national, international etc. NB this is an
emotive subject and has controversial and contentious issues which need to be dealt with
sensitively and realistically
There are resources and information everywhere – laminated copies of newspaper articles
on issues such as alternative energy, genetically modified food, climate change etc which can
be great sources of information – use as writing prompts, comprehension etc
Need to know more about environment and best place to get to know is our own immediate
environment – go out and find out more about it!
PP It all starts at home…
Some activities in the playground:

In partners – one is blindfolded and the other leads them to area of playground and
they have to feel what it is like. Take them back, take off blindfold and then they
have to find the place that they were taken to. Swap and other partner is taken
somewhere else

Find favourite place in the playground – sit there and imagine what it would be like
late at night alone there – think of some key words and write a haiku about it later
in class
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Draw sound maps in different places in the playground, where are the quiet areas,
why, are they always the same, what changes etc
Using any materials – look at different colours in playground and rub them onto
pallet – back in class can do a drawing of playground and try to replicate colours as
closely as possible – “Nature’s Pallet”
Collect different materials, put into a cup with some water and make a “smelly
cocktail” – give it a name and share it around!
These all have lots of follow-up activities and can be used as prompts and stimuli for
numerous other multi-disciplinary activities. Use the internet to find out more; Google Earth
(http://earth.google.com/) , Multi-map (http://www.multimap.com/) , Live Local
(http://local.live.com/) etc
Step 2
Living Sustainably

Discuss how sustainable we are at school. Children could carry out an energy audit
and draw up graphs and interpret the results. Look at Carbon Trust for ideas www.carbontrust.co.uk/energy
Come up with suggestions about how to improve the school’s energy use and also how
to make school more sustainable, recycling more, composting, generating own power
through solar panels, wind turbines etc and consider pros and cons of these. As an
off-shoot and using DT, could design an environmentally friendly school – using
either 2-D or 3-D model plans.
There are excellent WWF guidelines on sustainable schools – follow the link,
Pathways to Change - www.wwflearning.org.uk/wwflearning-home/pathwaystochange
Look for information in the DfES Sustainable Schools documentation and order
publications free:
Teachernet – Sustainable Schools www.teachernet.gov.uk/sustainableschools
Order a free copy: www.teachernet.gov.uk/publications
This is becoming increasingly important with the new SEF (s3, the new Sustainable
School Self-evaluation) Further example of a whole school audit – “School
Sustainable Development audit”
PP Step 2a - Living Sustainably at School

Consider how sustainably we live at home and in our immediate environment – “How
Sustainable?” can be looked at and discussed – will need some adapting for younger
children to make wording more comprehensible
Children could complete the “Environmental Quality Assessment Survey” and
“Pollution in Your Environment” as a homework assignment and draw up results at
school and give presentation of their findings to the rest of the class. (More on
issues around waste in later section) Other assignments could include “Climate
Change 1 & 2” and comparing scores in school the following day.
They could consider how they might improve their local environment and make plans
for a more sustainable local area – these could form a part of a presentation and be
shown to parents, local councillors etc.
Step 2b - Living Sustainably at Home

Children can calculate their own global footprint – what impact they make on the
environment and how they can reduce this. A really good web-site to use with this is:
www.globalfootprints.org on which they can work out their global footprint by filling
in an on-line questionnaire – there are also lots of games and activities that they can
do and find out more about the numerous related issues. On the web-site, direct
them to the kids section and the global footprint web-site is in the quizzes section.
There are also good classroom activities suggested linked to literacy, numeracy and
other disciplines. There is also the facility for calculating the school’s global
footprint
If you do not have access to the internet for all the children to do their own global
footprint – they could do a paper copy, similar to: “Measuring Your Ecological
Footprint” which has some interesting statistics at the bottom.
Discuss the implications of their footprint and ways in which it could be reduced,
what kind of commitment they need to make.
Step 2c - Calculating carbon footprints
Step 3
A sustainable world?
Use any available comparative statistics that you can find to illustrate how much of the
environment we are changing every day, how much waste we produce on a global basis
etc. eg for each typical UK
resident, we would need 2.7
planets…
(from Best Foot Forward
website:
www.bestfootforward.com
A really useful one is the apple representing the earth
 – really visual and
effective:

Take an apple and slice it into ¼’s. remove ¾ and put aside – that is the oceans of the
world

Slice remaining ¼ in half and set aside one half aside – that is inhospitable polar
areas deserts, swamps, very high or rocky mountains

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You are now left with 1/8 of the original apple – this is where people live but do not
necessarily grow the food that they need for life
Slice 1/8 into 4 – set aside 3 of them which are too rocky, too wet, too cold, too
steep or with too poor soils to actually produce food – it’s also urban sprawl, cities,
roads, highways, car parks etc
What we are left with is now 1/32 of the original or about 3%
Finally peel the remaining slice – the skin represents the surface of the earth of all
that remains to produce food.
As discussed, use again the laminated copies of newspaper articles related to issues of
sustainability and other environmental issues, giving impression of heightened awareness
of subject and the need to promote interest.
Brainstorm what the major environmental issues are and what we are doing to make
them worse and what we could do to make them better:
Include the “hotspots”: Transport, energy, water availability, climate change, food and
resources
PPStep 3: A sustainable world?
Could create information poster or spider diagram with world at centre and all the
issues attacking it and use this as part of a display.
Is our climate in chaos – are we living sustainably or not? This can open up a lively
debate and the children will want to contribute their bit.
A good starting point and springboard for such debate is David Attenborough’s
excellent programmes on Climate Change and in particular here, the initial one: Are We
Changing Planet Earth which are available from the BBC and internet as well as the
seminal work by Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth
PPStep 3 (cntd)
Lesson 4: Energy
Consider what we mean by energy – brainstorm where and when we use energy and why it
is so crucial in every aspect of our lives. Where does it come from?
Get the children to run in the playground and then walk, when do they feel more tired,
why? Think about the fast pace of our lives and how much energy we demand on a daily
basis. Try to make a rough estimate of how much we use and what it’s used for. Consider
the fact that without energy as we have it today, life would rapidly grind to a halt.
Look at the problems of the situation that is created by this.
PPStep 4 - Energy
Get the children to be creative in coming forward with ideas as to how we could change
this, what other methods of energy we could use.
Some really useful ideas, resources, links games and activities in the Learning and
Teaching Scotland website
http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/climatechange/
In DT they could make different models and ascertain which would work most
effectively and efficiently – small windmills, solar ovens, small dams etc. Use the ideas
from “Making a Solar Oven”
Look at WWF publicity material on sustainable schools in their Pathways to Change links
and ideas for the future.
Consideration of sustainability of transport as it exists today – look into major forms of
transport – understand that by far the majority run on fossil fuels and that this can’t
continue indefinitely.
Brainstorm ideas about how to change and adapt in the future – look into alternatives
and come up with design for vehicle for the future – how is it powered, how does it
work, what are the design features that make it efficient and sustainable?
PPStep 4b – Alternative Energy
Step 5: Water and Food
Water conservation – how it can most effectively be done – could invite speaker in from
local water board, to talk about the problems of water conservation and provision in UK
not being just about less rainfall but also about diversion of rivers for use in industries
and tired, old pipes that are no longer able to contain the demand put upon them.
Consider carefully how much water we use and how much we actually need – there is a
big discrepancy between the two which shows up effectively: “Your Entitlement is ..” –
it will make them, and you!, think!
PPStep 5a: Water and Food
Consider the numerous problems with adequate food for all – go back to the apple idea
and re-visit the implications for millions of people in the world, where do they get their
food etc.
Food miles – get children to bring in labels from food that they have eaten during the
week – look up in atlas where they come from and estimate the number of miles their
food for a week has travelled. Can do some effective graphs to show this using excel
programme in upper KS2. Lower down the school can use more simplified bar graphs,
which would be equally effective. Discuss the issues and implications of food travelling
all this way
Another effective way of showing the information is to have a large world map displayed
and stick the food labels all around it with arrows showing where the food comes from –
this can then be shared with the rest of the school. If there’s space, you could put their
graphs around the map as well.
PPStep 5b: Water and Food
Step 6: What a waste
Consider what happens to all our waste – find out how the children feel about their
neighbourhood, is it littered, is it kept clean – who keeps it clean, how responsible are
we for keeping it clean – do they feel proud of it. How can we improve it?
Brainstorm their perceptions of the environment – what do they think of it.
Could do a litter survey “Litter Survey” – divide local area into sections and children do
tally of type and amount of litter – take digital cameras and get evidence of litter,
graffiti etc. Are there enough litter bins, what do people in the local environment think
of it – do a questionnaire to ascertain the local view – “Litter Questionnaire”
The children can display results of surveys and questionnaires in form of simple bargraphs and then interpret the results, annotate the photos and show where the rubbish
is – is there any relationship between the incidence of rubbish and the lack of provision
of bins?
PPStep 6: What a Waste…
What can and should be done about it – could think about improving the environment –
use maps and annotate them to show where more bins should be put, possibility of
persuading local authority to put recycling centre somewhere in vicinity – if there is a
lot of graffiti, could they provide a wall that artists would be allowed, even encouraged
to display their work on and so make it less unsightly and negative.
They can put all their findings and suggestions together to make an excellent display for
the rest of the school and even send some of the information on to the local authority
as suggestions for improvement – perhaps some of the children could go to the LA as
representatives to put their ideas across, or someone could come in to see the display
and take the ideas back.
What do we do with our rubbish are we sure it’s all rubbish? “Are you sure it’s waste?”
– what makes up our rubbish? For a week or so, keep bins without chucking out contents
and then have a look through it. Does it all have to be thrown away – where does it go.
Classify it according to where it might go – think about
RECYCLING, REUSING, REDUCING.
Make sure that they take the message home about thinking about where their rubbish
goes and that they shouldn’t throw everything into the central bin but that they should
try to do the 3R’s as much as possible.
They could even make their own compost bin at school and watch what happens!
“Supermarket Science”
Make the pledge to go as green as possible – go through the “Living Green” and try to
get them and families to commit to as much of it as possible and feed back in near
future as to how they have got on. Allow them to feel that they can play a part.
A trip to the local municipal centre is really illuminating and powerfully gets across the
message that we are creating far too much waste and that it is not sustainable. If
possible, try to organise a speaker from the local authority to come in as well to talk to
the children about options and what they can do to improve the local environment.
PPStep 6b The 3 R’s
What next?
Some ideas for resources and ideas:
PP Resources and ideas – Articles and Links
PP Resources and ideas - CPD