Our Pledge to the Environment

Our sustainable kindergarten approach partly grew out of a growing concern about how much plastic (and especially single-use plastic) was being used in nurseries generally. From plastic aprons to shoe covers and disposable gloves, plastic toys to glitter and sequins (things of the distant past). We realised how much our children were being exposed to a throw-away culture at an incredibly important time in their lives. We also started counting the cost to the planet. So it began with adopting the plastic-free pledge. But it’s since expanded to our holistic approach to sustainability. True sustainability is about not standing still but continuously making changes and improvements.

Changes We Have Adopted

We’re making changes and improvements all the time, but here are just a few of the things we’ve adopted:

Single use plastics. We are constantly looking to reduce our use of single-use plastics. That means no (or significantly reducing) throwaway shoe covers, glitter, sequins, plastic milk bottles, delivery bags, laminating sheets, poly pockets, nappy sacks, baby wipes, disposable nappies, plastic bags, cling film (or tin foil). When possible, we buy loose food with no plastic packaging.

Plastic-free pledge. We’ve taken things a step further and are trying to eradicate ALL plastic from our kindergarten. That means: stainless steel beakers, cups and plates etc., silicone bibs/tablet covers etc., no plastic equipment or toys.

Cloth nappies. No more horrid disposables going into landfill, and no nasty waste bin for us. We provide cloth nappies for all our children and these are washed and reused. We use washable liners and washable wipes with natural grape seed oil to keep those little bottoms clean and soft.

Re-use or re-purpose rather than recycle. Wherever possible we re-use furniture or buy second hand. We love to up-cycle and the children can often be found making their own equipment with reused materials with the team. 300 000 tonnes of bulky waste get sent to landfill each year in the UK alone so we’re showing the children how much impact we can make.

LED lighting. We’ve changed all our nursery lighting to LED’s, which are 60-70% more energy efficient than traditional bulbs and last for up to 100,000 hours of use so we don’t need to dispose of so many.