Have a great idea for your school? The typical route is to go through a parent group and rally support, then email the school directly with your thoughts. But no change happens quickly, and the fastest death knell to a good idea are the words: “Bring it before The Committee.”
Such daunting words make it sound like you have to be a master in creating persuasive PowerPoint presentations with a little speech and debate skills (bilingual, of course) to boot. In fact, this is the challenge I saw a lot of parents lamenting in WeChat groups after our article on plant-based meat being served in schools for Earth Day was published. Many asked us for advice on how to approach a committee about implementing more sustainable practices, such as introducing a plant-based meal option at least one day a week. So we turned to two leaders in sustainable school lunches, Dulwich College Beijing (DCB) and the International School of Beijing (ISB).
Buckle up, because there’s a lot of information here! But it’s worth the time if you want your school to move towards more sustainable efforts.
From Committee to Community at DCB
At Dulwich College Beijing (DCB), the initiative towards sustainable eating involves every member of the community doing their part, and yes, it starts with a committee. However, the way their committee engages with and enlists the help of the entire school community means that everyone understands how they can play an important role towards a better planet. According to Kevin Elliott, DCB’s Director of Business Administration:
“Initiated by the DCB sustainability committee [which includes representatives of students and staff]and supported by wider community members, we worked with our food service provider Sodexo to offer more vegetarian options. The aim was to become more accountable when eating while not sacrificing the nutrition intake and taste. Compared with one of the common daily proteins, pork, plant-based meat uses 78%t less water and creates 96% less carbon emissions during production. Replacing 1,000 kg of pork with plant-based meat is equivalent to 192 trees being planted in terms of saved carbon emissions.”
Plant-based meat burger
Every small step helps the entire school to stay involved and aware of sustainability efforts. This aids the process when a Sustainability Committee wants to make bigger leaps forward. “All of these initiatives are a collective effort to reduce the consumption of plastic,” says Elliott. “And to encourage our students and wider community members to be more responsible and respectful global citizens on the planet that we live on.”
Some of these everyday endeavors include: decreasing the use of single-use plastic, i.e. removing plastic-bottled beverages from the campus and doing away with disposable packaging for food; students and staff are encouraged to use sustainable water bottles; installation of sustainable water fountains to encourage reusable water bottle use has begun; laminating on campus is discouraged, and food waste is monitored to increase the level of awareness across the school. In addition, solar energy currently lights up about half the DCB campus, with plans to illuminate the entire campus by natural sustainable energy in the near future, plus recycled water has been used to irrigate all the greenery and gardens in DCB.
ISB Prioritized Sustainability Goals With a New Part-time Position
ISB students team up with their food service provider, Sodexo, to add plant-based meats to the menu.
Matthew Yamatin is the Sustainability Manager for the International School of Beijing (ISB) and was also gracious enough to share his perspective on how parents and educators are able to present to the committees and move an idea forward. Yamatin – who is also a sustainability consultant for multinational corporations – identified a common barrier holding schools back from changing their operations to have a more positive impact. “The main barrier to progress for schools is the absence of a role dedicated to 1) ensuring sustainability has a voice in school discussion and 2) driving agreed upon changes from idea to reality. This barrier is not unique to schools, as I often see it with underperforming corporate sustainability programs.”
The intent of such a role is to serve as a liaison between parents/students/staff and school decision-makers. Instead of going to a committee that may have other priorities or lack the resources to move the parents’ concerns forward, this person becomes an advocate that parents can work with to institute change.
“ISB’s transformed its ability to implement sustainable action, which includes empowering students to be changemakers when they added a half-time Sustainability Manager role.” The transformation is evident with the implementation of numerous student-driven projects including their electric bus program, elimination of single-use plastics, revamped recycling system, 100 percent renewable electricity, more sustainable foods, and others currently in development.
Yamatin offered these excellent suggestions to help parents be more effective in influencing school action and encourages everyone to enlist and empower students to learn how to become changemakers as part of the process.
- Before meeting with the school, benchmark what other schools (e.g., ISB and DCB) are doing to focus your ask and validate that others are moving forward. ISB’s 2019 Sustainability Impact Report, which outlines their program’s approach and progress, is a great resource for this.
- Identify and meet with school advocates and decision-makers, specific to your desired outcome. These individuals may change depending on the scope of your topic, i.e., plant-based food vs. electric buses. If your school has a role dedicated to advancing the sustainability of your school, focus your energy there.
- Be prepared with a concise summary of 1) what the concern is 2) how it relates to the mission of the school 3) the proposed alternative 4) impact on the school and community from a social, environmental, and financial perspective and 5) what other schools are doing. Mr. Yamatin has students run through this same exercise when pitching their projects to the school’s administration.
- Listen and show empathy to the school’s constraints, but also be ready to provide alternative approaches to reach the desired outcome. Benchmarking data is helpful to address feasibility concerns.
- Unless your school has a dedicated role that can act as a point-person for your project, accept that you may need to be a driving force to make the project a reality.
As much as you do need the full community’s support, Yamatin has found that implemented actions often stem from one person being dedicated to the cause, whether that be a parent, student, staff, or dedicated sustainability resource at the school. This might seem like a lot to take on, especially for working and full-time parents.
But as detailed in both ISB and DCB’s efforts, it’s clear that the path to a healthier planet really can start in our schools. It just takes focus to get the entire community invested and involved.
KEEP READING: East Meets West: The Differences in Early Childhood Education
Images: Dulwich College of Beijing, International School of Beijing
