On the 6^th of February, our National Environmental and Sustainability Manager Jessica Marshall joined sustainability leads from United Learning and The Priory Trust to run a workshop on Sustainability Leadership and Climate Action Plans in Education at the CST Trust Finance and Operations Conference in Birmingham.

The session proved to be both informative and interactive, delving into the crucial aspects of exploring how trusts should get started on their sustainability journeys, from vision and culture to action plans. In addition to this, the conference covered workshops on the new Procurement Act, driving staff retention, the changing role of the CFO and the integration of climate action plans in education.

Jessica emphasized the significance of setting a clear vision for MATs embarking on sustainability goals. Jessica highlighted our 9 habits, which forms the core of our educational approach, which have been seamlessly integrated into our sustainability commitments. These commitments include being climate considerate, taking decisive action on energy and carbon to achieve ne-zero status; being nature hopeful, acting as stewards of biodiversity, water, and air to enhance the natural world; and being self-controlled consumers, responsibly managing waste to ensure sustainable resource utilisation.

In addition to this, Jessica also spoke about OCL’s commitment to annual carbon reporting and the implementation of unique initiatives such as the installations of ‘tower gardens’ at two of our academies. These were used as examples of how OCL is engaging with its range of stakeholders on sustainability and how this can and should take many different forms depending on who you are communicating with and where they are on this journey. The session focused on leadership, change management and the sphere of influence so that the leaders in the room could take away tangible actions back to their trusts.

Jessica said: “It was great to join up with some fellow sustainability leaders from United Learning and The Priory Trust to deliver the session. We had a full room of engaged leaders keen to take the early steps in their sustainability journey and hopefully, they came away from the session being able to do just that!”

“Events like this are really important to share ideas, experiences and learn from each other – we’re all on this journey to tackling the climate emergency together after all!”