Sustainability
In 2007, a new society called the Global Issues Network (GIN) under the leadership of Cheryl Douglas was created, arising out of the Climate Change Society. Its programme was based on the Millennium Development goals, and its immediate activities focused on recycling, and investigations into the use of water and electricity on campus. Boys from the Society were invited to present a paper at the Dusseldorf Conference in March, and the Society also was represented at a number of local conferences in Cape Town on green issues, especially recycling. Six scholars from the LEAP1 School joined the Society. A presentation on sustainability was made to the Next Wave Conference in July 2008. In the second half of the year, boys from the Society participated in the Cape Town City Council’s Youth Environmental Sustainability (YES) conference. As a result of their involvement in the YES conference and their own school audit, GIN was invited to be part of the Cape Town City Council’s Green Audit pilot project for schools. Bishops twinned with the LEAP1 School in this project, which involved doing a full audit of facilities on campus and then coming up with a retrofit plan on how to reduce water, waste and electricity consumption.
In 2009, Cheryl Douglas was invited to the Microsoft Innovative Teachers’ conference in Mauritius to present her project, “Teaching for the Future: making learners aware of global issues with an emphasis on Sustainability.” She was then invited to take her presentation to the worldwide finals in Brazil. This marked the beginning of the expansion of the Society’s activities into a classroom activity.
Over the next years, the activities of the Society extended beyond just sustainability, and groups in the Society engaged with disseminating information on various issues, using the student News Action Network, talking at the Leaders’ Assemblies, and forming of small groups tackling various issues of concern. The audit went ahead, but only of White House – to do an audit of water use across the whole campus was way beyond the capacity of the Society.
In 2017, these initiatives provided the groundwork for the development of the Future-Fitting Bishops document. Drawn up by a group of staff, boys, parents, and management under the guidance of Cheryl Douglas and Gerry Noel, the document and the policies it advanced aimed at creating Bishops as a sustainable organisation, both in its operations and curriculum. The document used the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which were formally adopted by 193 countries at a UN summit in September 2015, as its framework. The first actions flowing from this were the installation of smart meters and the introduction of a variety of water-saving methods by the boys. This was in 2017, the year of Cape Town’s big drought and the imminent approach of Day Zero. Another development was the setting up and development of a vegetable garden on campus. This was a GIN initiative by a group who were called the Sustainable Agricultural Society. Food harvested here was given to the support staff.
Other advances included advancing the borehole and water purification systems for the campus to become independent of municipal water, while at the same time being well aware of the fact that water is a scarce resource. In 2018 a de-ioniser was installed at the reservoir, and soon after that a water purification plant was set up. Since then, the College campus has been self-sufficient in water, and these installations have paid for themselves in the savings made. Much more efficient heat pumps replaced geysers in the boarding houses. The waste disposal system on campus was overhauled.
The academic curriculum was expanded in 2018 to include the “Big Ideas” project for the Grade 9 boys. This programme was also rooted in the UN Sustainability goals. Further developments continue to be implemented. Following an initiative from the Big Ideas group of 2023, who got the go-ahead from the E-Waste Recycling Authority, an E-Waste disposal bin was set in place next to the Woodlands Astro.
Photo-voltaic cells were introduced as a pilot project on the north-facing roof of the Steffan Coutts-Trotter Indoor Cricket Centre, and after that, on numerous other roofs as well. A small “solar farm” was also installed between the tennis courts and Silwood Road. At first this was a grid-tied system intended to reduce dependence on municipal Eskom supplied power. In 2023, the school had to buy generators to keep the College power on when the whole campus was subject to load-shedding. These generators will be sold off as soon as the school can acquire sufficient battery storage.
