Environmental education holds a crucial role in the development of your little ones. By introducing environmental concepts and practices at a young age, children can gain a deeper comprehension and admiration for the natural world around them.
One of the prime benefits of environmental education for children is its positive impact on their overall development. Environmental education offers opportunities for children to connect with nature. Spending time outdoors and engaging in hands-on activities like gardening or nature walks fosters a sense of wonder and curiosity. These experiences promote a healthy lifestyle, encourage physical activity, and improve mental well-being.
Through engaging nature-based activities and experiences, children can enhance their cognitive, physical, social, and emotional skills.
When learning about animals and their habitats, children acquiring new knowledge and understanding of cause-and-effect relationships.
By learning about environmental issues, children become aware of their role in protecting our planet, influencing their behaviours and choices and instils a sense of stewardship for future generations.
We teach children in our nurseries all about the environment and how to live sustainably. You can find lots of information on our exclusive family website and app Childbase@Home, which covers topics around biodiversity, wildlife conservation, reforestation, eco-systems, recycling, what we can do to be more environmentally friendly and activities to try at home.
In our Forest Schools, children receive natural experiences which support their physical and mental well-being, enhance creativity and their problem-solving skills. These deep connections with nature help children to develop resilience, confidence, and environmental responsibility through hands-on, outdoor learning.
We are a leading participant of the Eco-Schools programme to embed sustainability into our curriculum. Through practical activities like recycling, energy conservation, and biodiversity projects, our children and colleagues work together to care for the environment and minimise our impact.
Each nursery has an Eco Committee, led by practitioners and pre-schoolers, that oversees activities like monitoring recycling, ensuring taps are turned off, switching off unnecessary lights and sharing knowledge about conservation.
At Childbase, we recognise our role in protecting our environment, which is why we’re taking action beyond education. In our acting pillar, we’re focusing on Reaching Net Zero, which covers how we measure, reduce and offset our carbon footprint. We also share our awards and accreditations which recognise that actions we have taken on our sustainability journey.
All of our nurseries have achieved the Eco-Schools Green Flag Award with distinction, the highest possible award for exceptional environmental awareness and conservation, for 3 consecutive years.
The ‘clean sweep’ of flags puts our award-winning, employee-owned company at the top of Eco Schools league tables. We have previously been named ‘Early Years Provider of the Year’ and ‘an incredible Eco-Schools standard-bearer’ in the Eco-School Annual Awards, thus showing how committed we are to environmental awareness.
We were the first early years provider to complete a full scale, year-long energy use and emissions measuring exercise – in 2018 to establish a carbon footprint for each of our settings. We are committed to becoming a Net Zero organisation by 2045 and plan to do this by:
On the left, we show the top emission sources in our supply chain. Now, we’re working with our suppliers to understand how they are reducing their own emissions.
As part of taking action, we offset our emissions from our complete operations, from our nursery settings to our staff travel. Through supporting some amazing offset projects, we have helped to reduce over 12,000 tonnes of carbon. Here are four of the amazing projects that we supported in 2023:
The Solar Water Heater Programme distributes solar water heaters across India, ensuring reliable hot water for homes and businesses while raising awareness and supporting local education to combat climate change.
This project uses the water resources of the Bonito River Basin to contribute to satisfying the growing demand for electricity in Chile through the use of clean and renewable local resources.
The wind energy project in Rajasthan creates jobs, improves infrastructure, and enhances energy availability while promoting sustainability, conserving resources, and advancing renewable energy technology.
This project’s activity generates electricity by using renewable zero emission hydro resource. This will displace the use of fossil fuel-fired power plants that are currently connected to the grid.
We are also planning and delivering reductions in all of our waste. Since 2019, we have reduced our waste by over 56%. Here are some of our initiatives so far:
In the 12 months to November 2023, we diverted 280 tonnes of nappy and sanitary waste from landfill via Anaerobic Digestion Material Reclamation Facilities.
Over one million of our nappies a year (weighing over 216 tonnes!) are collected and sorted by specialists. Each tonne of nappy waste that we divert from landfill saves 610kg of carbon dioxide.
We divert our waste from non-recyclable materials to be used in Energy from Waste processes to power hospitals or boost the National Electricity Grid.
We have zero waste to landfill at all of our nurseries and are aiming for 75% of all waste produced to be recycled.
We’re also looking to trial some new waste reduction methods, like onsite composting.
Our children, parents and colleagues are all key stakeholders in our sustainability strategy. Any new sustainability initiatives we implement have the needs of each of these stakeholders at the forefront and we ensure any decisions made enhance the experience your children.
We actively seek feedback from our stakeholders on how we can do more and encourage you to speak to your nursery manager if you have any questions or ideas. We’d love to hear them!
For our colleagues, we have planted over 2,000 trees – one for each current employee and a commitment to plant one for every new recruit. We plant with the Eden Reforestation Project in Madagascar.
We also have a ‘Cycle to Work’ programme offering colleagues in all settings savings on bike and safety accessory purchases of between 32% and 42%.
