04 October 2010
By: Tom Spaul
I know that up and down the country many of our staff are doing great work with local communities and I feel we should recognise their efforts more often.
A good example was the launch of the Veolia Carbon Bootprint education project at the end of September. Together with Derby County Football Club, we’ve designed a programme which links environmental awareness with fitness through classroom based and practical outdoor training.
The scheme will be run at twenty schools in the Derby area and the launch was held at Pride Park – Derby’s home ground. It got off to an exciting start watching the home team wipe the floor with Crystal Palace, beating them 5 – 0.
I guess we must have been their lucky charm for the day, because many of the locals were left scratching their heads to remember the last time they won a match by five goals.
Pupils will undertake six weeks of classroom based exercise in areas covering recycling, energy conservation and exercise.
This is followed by a practical outdoors training session designed to reinforce the points learned during the lesson. As a final project children are encouraged to recycle enough paper in class to fill a life size model of Derby keeper Stephen Bywaters – no easy task with his 6’4” frame!
Not only are we helping to reinforce our presence in the Derby area by helping local pupils learn about sustainability, but I hope this could become a flagship scheme that is recognised as a model of good practice.