Kicking off focus on sustainability with Race to Zero Pledge and staff training
As part of a month-long focus on sustainability, Milton Keynes College Group held a Develop Together Conference on 31st October, designed to bring colleagues together to discuss how they can contribute to the Group’s wider sustainability goals.
The key event of the day was the College Group signing the Race to Zero pledge, a global campaign to rally leadership and support from businesses, cities, regions and investors for a healthy, resilient, zero carbon recovery. Other highlights included a keynote speech from Steve Frampton MBE, the FE and HE Climate Commissioner from the Association of Colleges and teams from across the College Group making their own sustainability pledges.
In addition, the Conference involved more than 800 colleagues from across the College Group being offered Carbon Literacy training. The training is provided by the Carbon Literacy Project which involves people and organisations from all sectors and walks of life working together and contributing time, materials and funding.
Following on from the Develop Together Conference, the College Group is dedicating the month of November to sustainability, with learners and colleagues taking part in a range of activities. These will include group walks in and around Milton Keynes, sharing meat-free recipes, taking part in Green Careers Week to highlight careers with a positive environmental impact and installing bug hotels on the MK College Chaffron Way campus.
The College Group is also changing its logo for the month of November – it’s based around the ‘Climate Stripes’ graphic designed by Professor Ed Hawkins to demonstrate how our climate has been heating up and will continue to do so if we don’t take significant action to change carbon emissions.
Alex Warner, Principal: Curriculum and Pedagogy at Milton Keynes College Group, commented: “We’re incredibly committed to not only reducing our impact on the environment but on making all of our provision at Milton Keynes College Group fully sustainable. This is all part of our aim to build Fairer Futures for our learners, colleagues and communities.
“As part of this commitment, we’re delighted to support greater understanding of Climate Literacy and following the FE Climate Roadmap, with the signing of the Race to Zero Pledge. It’s been fantastic to bring all of our staff together for our Develop Together CPD Conference and we’re looking forward to working together on the next steps to achieving the goals set out in the FE Climate Road Map.”