What is Sustainable Development?

For something to be sustainable it must be able to continue indefinitely without reducing the resources on which it depends.

To develop there has to be a year-on-year improvement of the circumstances of a given situation/organisation.

Sustainability Agenda – the school’s intent to apply sustainable principles throughout school life

We need to live on the earth in such a way that we do not compromise future generations to do so too – in other words ‘living off income not capital”

The resources of the earth are all mankind’s common inheritance – we have enough now because we distribute them so unequally – if we all enjoyed the standard of living of the UK we would require the resources of three planets.

We have a Catholic foundation but see that caring for our fellow man and for God’s earth are indivisible.

“….never create unhappiness for others, make the most of all that life has to offer…”

We can embody sustainable development in two ways:

• the way we run the school;
• the way we educate the pupil:

The School

• Economic
• Social
• Environmental

The Pupil

• Understanding of earth system, climate change, etc.
• Using energy, reducing waste.
• Healthy lifestyle, nutrition, well-being.
• Moral/religious/spiritual dimension

Biomass Boiler

Our major achievement in reducing our dependence on fossil fuels has been the installation of a biomass boiler fuelled by woodchip. The boiler has had a major impact on SD. – It has removed 4 oil boilers from the energy programme [science/ICT; clock house; Tick Tock; Dairy Cottage] and around twenty-two electric heaters, reducing our dependence on fossil fuels

• It is carbon neutral in performance i.e. it does not use fossil fuel and therefore does not contribute additional carbon dioxide to the atmosphere
• It is also heating all the new classrooms, the Art building, the After School club/Learning Support building and the new CDT building, all of which were previously heated by electricity
• It produces heat at a cost of 2.44p/KWh compared with about 4.5p for oil and about 6p for electricity at time of installation

In the first year that it was in use, we used 23631 KWh of electricity less than for the same period the previous year!!

The Tree House

The Tree House (Junior Boarding House)  sits very comfortably within Moor Park’s sustainability agenda. It is an Eco building, built from local, sustainable natural resources, and has attained Category 4 of the Code for Sustainable Homes, making it one of the first Code 4 houses in Shropshire.  The building is extremely energy efficient, using 75% less energy than the average house, and is 50% more water efficient.   In terms of its carbon footprint, the Tree House absorbed 16 tonnes of carbon into the fabric of the building during tree-growth, whereas the average house of its size would create 40 tonnes.

The children are very excited about The Tree House, and not only because it really does feel like a home from home.  They love the fact that it is kind to the enviroment. As one child said to the Headmaster “It’s so cool sir, we even use rainwater to flush our loos!”