The majority of the eco initiatives introduced at Dulwich Prep Cranbrook have been very much child led, we have found that the children genuinely care and want to make a difference. Our Eco Club was set up by the children in Upper School. We have achieved the Eco Schools Bronze Award, and our goal is to achieve the Green Flag Award. The children undertook an environmental review of the school and drew up an action plan from the results. The three areas they will be concentrating on are waste, energy use and biodiversity. 

This year Dulwich took part in Switch Off Fortnight to reduce our energy use, and one Year 7 tutor group are working on their eco brick project, using recycled plastic bottles to make bricks to build houses in Africa. Other activities include a new initiative to compost waste at snack time during break and personalised aluminium water bottles designed in DT lessons. When we realised how many plastic bottles were used at school we started a campaign to ban them. Half the school now use glass milk bottles from a local dairy. We no longer use plastic straws and the school-produced DVD cases are now cardboard. Nash House (Early Years) are now single-use plastic-free, reverting to glass milk bottles at snack time and banning plastic wrapped food.

In the grounds at Dulwich Prep Cranbrook we are fortunate to have an area set aside as a nature reserve and there is also an area of the grassland which is left unmown over the spring and summer. We have a very active Gardening Club who grow vegetables and fruit as well as flowers. In Little Stream (Years 1-4) Eco Club activities range from picking blackberries and making jam to creating bird boxes. The children have also given up their break to litter-pick in the school grounds.

Eco Club have asked staff to reduce the amount of paper that they laminate as this is difficult to recycle and also to reuse and recycle classroom displays. End of life computer equipment is collected by an Environment Agency registered company for recycling and safe disposal. Printing is set to double-sided as default and printer and photocopier usage are regularly monitored, with high volume producers given advice on ways to reduce. We have also collected over 700 pens to recycle, and over 3,600 batteries have been saved from landfill.  

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