sustainability
Our overarching aim is to be carbon neutral by 2030. We recognise that carbon offsets form part of the toolkit to achieve this, but we seek to minimise the need for offsets by maximising the opportunities that we have on our own land.
Land use and Ecology
We have an 800 acre campus rich in ecology with enormous opportunity for biodiversity and carbon sequestration.
Transport We have mini buses, operational vehicles, grounds and gardens machinery, the majority running on fossil fuels. We need to address this. Energy We manage our energy well but we could always use less. The majority of our heating and hot water is powered by gas. This needs to change. Waste Our waste volumes are no more than the industry standard, but this is not acceptable. We live in a throw-away society which is not sustainable and many facets of college life need to be reviewed.
In simple terms, we will reduce our energy and waste, create renewable energy and enhance our site ecology to sequester carbon. Our present carbon footprint is 1777 tonnes per annum. This has dropped from 2900 tonnes ten years ago as a result of work to upgrade our infrastructure and introduce low energy solutions. This gives us an excellent foundation on our journey to carbon neutral.
MISSION STATEMENT
EDUCATE Sustainability within the College to be embedded in the curriculum, and allow boys teaching and learning opportunities using our landscape as an outdoor classroom.
Radley College has been here for 175 years, however boys are only on campus for five years. Changes to the way things are done and our experience gains traction within the school year so need a range of initiatives to engage along each step of the Radley journey.
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To date we have: ACTIONSInsulatedroofsandthermalimagedbuildingstolimitdraughts weather replacedwindowssealedorwindowstodoubleglazingwherepossible planted more trees than we have removed Golf course and pitch servicedirrigationbyborehole,notmainswatersupplychanged 90% of lighting on campus to leds installed water saving spray showers on timers across the campus replaced oil boilers with ManagementfullgascondensingboilersInstalledaBuildingSystemChanged electric supply to be from renewable sources
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If we set out strategy and planning using these three timescales it enables us to create long, medium, and short term goals. This will enable all Radleians to be involved in the short and medium term projects and influence the long term plan. is a now community-wide opportunity to make a real difference and projects will be actively implemented; with dons, operational staff and partners involved possible.
GOALS transport &useland wasteenergyecology Survey sequestering at planting175thpresentanniversary Wider ExistingBiodiversitysequesteringholdingplantinglandstewardship Ongoing management and educational projects for both Radley College and our partners Install electric vehicle chargers to encourage use of AnalysefromChangee-vehiclesCollegebuggiespetroltoelectricboys’traveltobe as efficient as possible Change all College vehicles to electric where possible No College vehicles to run on fossil fuel Set standardsSetsuppliersstandardsenvironmentalforcoachenvironmentalforsupply chains Link electric meters from Socials to enable comparative checks Talks on behavioural change Trial heat pumps in existing areas No fossil fuel use in new-build projects Solar Farm Reduce / eliminate natural gas usage Upgrade managementwastesystem to single point supplier, no waste to landfill Recycle bins externally Eliminate single-use plastic across the campus Food and general waste reduction Construction waste tender KPI 5 years1 year 2030 1777 Tonnes CO2 Zero CO2 EDUCATE Bring sustainability into the curriculum and embed this in the way that we all learn, work and think. Encourage boy-led projects and real hands-on opportunities with our landholding. Deliver activities through our Countryside Centre hub for the boys, our community and partners.
Each year we will report on our overall performance against our goals, with the written commentary initially broken down into our core themes of Land Use & Ecology, Transport, Energy, Waste and Education, so that we are fully accountable.
MEASURING OBJECTIVES AND REPORTING
The short- and medium-term plans will develop from year to year as we move through our journey but will always be contributing towards our mission to be carbon neutral by 2030. Our carbon neutral targets are based on greehouse gas emissions Scope 1 and 2. These are emissions from our direct operations. Scope 3 covers indirect emissions from both our supply chain and our customers. We will tackle this in parallel, through a mix of supply chain contracts, influence and discussion.
However, not all things are quantifiable from data alone and cause little effect to the thin metric of our carbon footprint. They are though the right thing to do to sustain Radley and will be noted in our report.
INITIAL ESTATE SUSTAINABILITY MASTERPLAN
