Reaching sustainability is not a quick and easy task. It is a multifaceted journey due to the scope and complexity of the issues we face, all of which need to be matched by actions that have been comprehensively balanced in consideration of their pros and cons. Within this journey, the celebration of every positive step, however small or big, is paramount. It is so important because we cannot afford to have the mindset that our individual actions don’t make a difference. Some may think that it is only the big corporations and governments that can make a change, but without the voices, actions and pressure from the people, they will not. Every positive action, from every individual is crucial.

“We don’t need a handful of people doing sustainable living perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly” – Anne-Marie Bonneau

Celebrating the progress on what we are doing is vital to empower and enable ourselves and eachother to do even more. Here are some of the steps that Acorn took in its journey towards sustainability, that we celebrated in 2024.

Whilst in 2023 we were recognised for our progress towards sustainability when we won the Nursery World Eco-Friendly Early Years award, we spent 2024 focused on consolidating existing practices and building on these wherever possible. For the first time, 13 of our nurseries won the Eco-Schools Green Flag Award (recognising various environmental efforts by the children and the nursery). Some of our nurseries won this for the very first time, and this was a huge achievement, especially because it enabled those nursery teams to reflect on their existing practices, such as the use of natural materials for play, having meat-free days on weekly menus and doing mindful activities such as yoga, all of which play a positive role towards sustainability but may not have been explicitly realised as so. By engaging more directly with key topics through the Eco-Schools programme, the nursery teams begun developing and strengthening their understanding of sustainability and started to become more inspired of what else they could do to be more sustainable and how to reflect this in the children’s learning. For example, some of our nurseries created small ponds in their gardens to support aquatic habitats, one nursery invited their families in a ‘Stay Active and Walk Together’ event to raise awareness for plastic pollution, and one nursery organised their very own allotment space to take care of, in their local community.

Some of our nurseries won this award for the third consecutive year, and our Kents Hill nursery, achieved it for their fourth consecutive year! This too is a massive achievement as the consistency of sustainability is growing. We now also have some very experienced Eco-Leads who can support our newer Eco-Leads, and share their experience and practice.

“Since starting the Eco-Schools programme back in 2021, litter picking has become an embedded part of our practice. Children are regularly out in our local spaces with the litter pickers, protecting our wildlife. It has enabled us to have a bigger impact within the local community.”  (Elena Martuccio, Manager of our Kents Hill nursery)

At the start of the year we researched how is sustainability conceptualised by our early years professionals, children and their families. Through this research we found that there is a multitude of ways that sustainability in the early years is currently understood, and also that it is not a familiar concept to everyone, which has informed plans for our next steps forward. We presented this research at the European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA) conference in September 2024, which was a brilliant and an inspiring opportunity to hear about the wide range of emerging sustainability research in the context of early years.

(A word cloud showing the most common examples of eco-friendly nursery practice noted by the families at Acorn’s nurseries, from our 2024 questionnaire)

In November we had the opportunity to share with sector colleagues our tips and experiences in working towards the economic pillar of sustainability, at the Nursery World Sustainability conference.

Throughout the year we ran a sustainability workshop at all of our staff training days, which helped our staff members, whatever their role in the nursery, to strengthen their understanding of sustainability, its importance and provided practical ideas to take away and implement in day-to-day nursery life.

Participation in the Eco-Schools programme and our staff training opportunities, reflected successfully in the practices with the children. Here are a few more of the many examples:

Throughout 2024 we also worked on our sustainability strategy, setting out our goals, which we look forward to sharing with you later in 2025.

Remember, every positive step counts. As Hannah Ritchie brilliantly highlights in her book ‘Not the End of the World’, “if we want to get serious about tackling the world’s environmental problems, we need to be more optimistic. We need to believe that it is possible to tackle them”. Things are changing for the better thanks to many people’s efforts, but if you’re not convinced by that (and I wouldn’t blame you as we do tend to only hear negative news), I encourage you to read Ritchie’s book!