As one of the largest Further Education Colleges in the East of England, and a local anchor institution, Colchester Institute is fully aware of its responsibilities to promote good sustainable practice to its 10,000-strong college community.
College leaders used the opportunity of a Professional Development Day as a platform to relaunch a new strategy designed to elevate the College’s response to the dual crises of climate catastrophe and nature depletion.
The College Community came together across 650 breakout session bookings following on from inspirational plenary videos and presentations from internal and external speakers. This included representatives from Trident Utilities, Colchester Zoo and Essex Wildlife Trust.
College staff committed to work harder and faster across a range of areas at home and at work to cut carbon, to increase awareness and influencing, and to do more to protect and improve conditions for the natural world. There will be more investment in college facilities over the next five years and every department will be undertaking impactful climate action projects and reporting back at the end of the academic year.
Gary Horne MBE, Deputy Chief Executive said “Having reduced carbon emissions by 33% over five years since we declared a climate emergency, we’re now aiming to beat our 2030 50% reduction target by two years, and within 12 months from now at least 30% of college land will be nature positive, ensuring our students are fully engaged in all our exciting rewilding and other nature-based projects”
Alison Andreas, Principal and Chief Executive said “I am so proud of all colleagues who contributed to an amazing day, and hugely grateful to all the external partners who presented and facilitated on the day, leaving us feeling totally inspired to make positive changes, individually and collectively in support of our new strategy”
As part of the day, the College announced Essex Wildlife Trust as its Charity of the Year, setting a minimum fundraising target of £5,000 to assist with its work to protect wildlife and restore important habitats across Essex.
College staff gathered during the Environmental and Sustainability Professional Development Day
