Is your school green? I’m not talking about the colour of the walls or floors, but about how eco friendly it is. Have you ditched single-use plastic? Is climate change embedded throughout the curriculum? Do you, as a leader, encourage students and staff to make sustainable choices and lead by example?

I wish every leader could answer “yes” to the above, but in reality, that’s not the case.

I moved schools in 2010 and, keen to collaborate with other environmental enthusiasts, I looked at how many schools in my new local authority had a Green Flag Award from the Eco-Schools programme. The programme encourages schools to follow seven steps to sustainability; when they do, they achieve Green Flag status. Just one school in the area had this badge of honour.

I know that the road to sustainability is tough and requires time and resources from leaders, but as COP26 highlighted, it’s never been more important that we walk down it. While some schools are already making significant changes in this area, we need many more to take action.

The need for change is coming from the very top. From January 2022, all new school and college buildings, major refurbishments and extension projects in Wales will be required to meet net-zero carbon targets.

In England, education secretary Nadhim Zahawi has said that schools should improve the biodiversity of their grounds, take part in Energy Pod pilots to provide net-zero heating and hot water and encourage their students to participate in a new award scheme focused on climate change.

But to truly have an impact in this area, I believe we need to focus on four goals: becoming net zero by 2050; building resilience to climate change; creating a better environment for future generations; and connecting citizens to nature. But how, in practice, can leaders achieve these?

1. Net zero by 2050

Net zero isn’t just about reducing energy usage, but re-examining the entirety of procurement processes for everything the school buys - from paperclips to photocopiers.

Any new-build project needs to take account of its carbon footprint. Ask yourself: could you opt for a good-quality wooden construction rather than concrete and steel? What about the procurement process of the contractors - could you use a local firm that sources materials from their doorstep?

Food, too, is significant. Through the Food for Life scheme, which supports schools to produce healthy and sustainable food, we took over our own catering, adopted a predominantly vegetarian menu and sourced local produce. This cut our carbon footprint and, actually, was cheaper.

We reduced our water footprint by catching and using rainwater for toilets via the installation of an underground tank and water butts fitted to drainpipes for garden watering. And, to control waste, we introduced a no-single-use plastic policy and compost bins - the contents of which are used for the school garden.

Energy can be saved through retrofitting - for example, by installing extra insulation and replacing old lighting and gas or oil heating systems. We did this through a local co-operative called South East London Community Energy (SELCE) which installed solar panels that are paid for over 25 years via the feed-in tariff. Schools should look at commercial finance and local authority schemes in their areas.

Behaviour change is also important. We managed to take our building’s energy rating from E to C by encouraging people to turn things off when not needed and closing doors in winter. Of course, microgeneration (the small-scale generation of heat and electric power) through solar panels can take all this to new levels.

The mission to become net zero should extend beyond the school gates and into travel, too. Schools can make a significant difference by encouraging non-car transport: seven members of our staff signed up to the government-subsidised Bike2Work scheme, and we also run cycle training classes for adults and children.

2. Resilience to climate change

We’ve all experienced the effects of how climate change is changing our weather. Leaders should consider installing air conditioning for hotter summers, as well as improving winter heating and insulation as mentioned previously. The energy for this needs to come from renewable sources and ideally be produced on site via solar panels.

We also need to build the emotional resilience of staff and pupils. Above all, people need to be shown how they can make a difference through individual and collective action. A global learning curriculum can assist this process, and providing localised solutions to community problems can really bring it to life. For example, our children helped their families tackle fuel poverty through energy saving and we worked with agencies such as SELCE to help with installing insulation and give general energy advice.

3. A better environment for future generations

Leaders should look beyond their tenure and ensure that sustainability is at the heart of provision long after they’ve left the school. Ask yourself: is the school’s ethos, spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) offer and curriculum provision fit for purpose in terms of helping our civilisation to last indefinitely? Scary as it may seem, school leaders are in a unique position to address this need for a cultural shift. It’s not all about new technical solutions.

4. Citizens connected to nature

For all staff and students to be connected to nature, nature studies must be an important part of the curriculum. Climate change has been mainly lodged in geography and citizen education, but schools should consider how to bring climate change into other subjects. For example, looking at carbon footprints in maths, conflicting messages and rhetoric in English or representations of nature in the arts.

A GCSE in natural history would be ideal: it could have elements of earth science, biology and ecology as well as links to geography, history and citizenship, but until that becomes an option, schools could also ensure that all children have access to a forest school, which can combine many curriculum areas through immersion in nature.

These four areas are inextricably linked and will require some creative thinking to piece them together in the context of schools but, crucially, leaders need to remember that it’s less of a linear tick-box mentality and more of a systems-thinking approach.

David Dixon is a former primary teacher and headteacher. His new book Leadership for Sustainability: saving the planet one school at a time will be published in February 2022

This article originally appeared in the 19 November 2021 issue under the headline “It’s not easy being green - but your school should try”