Sustainability

Biodiversity is just one aspect of the wider issue of creating sustainable school estates. The design, construction and operation of school estates will all contribute to their sustainability.

The Scottish Government's Greener Schools website   brings together relevant Scottish Government policies, legislation, advice, guidance and good practice relating to sustainability for school estates. The site also provides links to other relevant resources and information.

In September 2009 the Scottish Government and COSLA jointly published the new School Estate Strategy Building Better Schools: Investing in Scotland's Future  . The Strategy includes a strong, joint commitment from local and Scottish Government to developing a more sustainable school estate.

The EAUC Managing Biodiversity on Campus Guide  is designed to encourage universities and colleges to incorporate biodiversity into their campuses across the UK. It gives practical "how-to-do-it" advice on habitat creation and management, guidance for successful long-term biodiversity projects, whilst ensuring legal compliance. Illustrated case studies are included.

The High Performance Buildings Guide   produced by the Higher Education Environmental Performance Improvement (HEEPI) provides a sustainability checklist for each stage of the building process: inception, design, build, handover and use. The process it identifies is equally applicable to the school building sector.

Case study - Kildrum Primary School

This school in North Lanarkshire reduced its local footprint by growing food within its school grounds. The Primary 6 class used the Schools' Global Footprint Resource to calculate its food footprint and then decided to reduce it by growing their own vegetables as well as reducing waste associated with food.

Find out more about Kildrum Primary School's project  .