Project Zero Goals

To kick off Eco Week, our Eco Team updated the school community on our progress towards key Project Zero goals.

At Monday’s whole school assembly, Sixth Formers introduced some of the UN’s 17 sustainability goals and explained how their Eco Week activities link to some of these aims, such as responsible consumption and climate action. As we head towards our 150th anniversary, they outlined three key priorities for the school community:

1. To reduce waste going to landfill
2. To reduce single-use plastic
3. To be carbon neutral by 2026

To help establish robust and measurable targets, we recently commissioned the UN-certified charity One Carbon World to carry out a full scope carbon footprint analysis of the school – an audit funded by Project Zero donations. Based on data from 2018/19 (the year we launched Project Zero, as well as the last academic year not impacted by Covid) the audit reported 754.39 tonnes of CO2e consumption*, equivalent to 0.80 tonnes per pupil and employee at the school.

Based on this analysis, our key carbon footprint targets are:

• To reduce our like for like consumption by 10% per annum (the UN target is 7.6% by country, so this would be a stretch target)
• To rebalance our carbon footprint on an annual basis with the purchase of Verified Emission Reductions (VERs) 
• To be certified net carbon zero by 2026

Thanks to support for our Project Zero fund, our carbon footprint for 2018/19 was fully compensated by purchasing Verified Emission Reductions (VERs).  90% of these VERs are supporting La Pitanga – a reforestation project in South America, which re-purposes land from cattle production and replants it with trees, creating more local jobs; the project is verified by the Rainforest Alliance, VERRA and certified by the FSC, who help ensure fair wages.  As we work to achieve carbon neutrality by our 150th Anniversary in 2026, we intend to conduct a carbon footprint audit each year to help track our progress.

In the interim, you can support our Project Zero goals in a number of ways: by adopting small changes (eg. walking to school, turning off lights, recycling waste properly); by making your own 365-day eco pledge; or by donating to our Project Zero fund via ParentPay or here. In the words of Greta Thunberg:

You are never too small to make a difference.

*C02e = ‘CO2 equivalent’ represents the total climate change impact of all of the greenhouse gases:

•       CO2 Carbon Dioxide
•       CH4 Methane (25 times more potent per kilogram than CO2)
•       N2O Nitrous Oxide (c300 times more potent than CO2)
•       Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), Perfluorocarbons (PFCs), Sulphur hexafluoride SF6