Environmental Sustainability
Our sustainability goals
As custodians of this remarkable planet, Pembroke House, is beginning to take significant steps in building upon our sustainability goals. We have a long history of ‘green’ principles, such as the use of solar in heating our pool, creating our own water filtration system and every new pupil is invited to plant a sapling in their first term. Now that the earth is at a tipping point, it has never been more crucial to take more action and the creation of our Sustainability Sub Committee in 2022 is dedicated to driving our environmental efforts further.
With considerable farming and conservation experience within our committee, we are embarking on a journey with a focus on the food served to our children and its provenance. We are also looking at ways to increase the biodiversity of the school campus by re-wilding areas, introducing bee hives, creating our own farm to aspire to a net zero food policy and planting our ‘Queen’s Canopy’ of trees to extend our forestry in memory of Queen Elizabeth II. We have also upped our recycling efforts and, of course, continue to inspire our children to make sound environmental decisions that will become a way of life.
“The impact of the pupils’ involvement permeates the life of the school. Pupils are always aware of their responsibilities to the wider world, not least those that may have an environmental element”.
OUR INITIATIVES
Recycling
We recycle all our paper, cardboard and plastic, which goes to local companies for reuse. Our waste food goes to our local pig farmer.
Grey Water
The wetlands recycle our grey water. Every week, the estates team add EM, which is a source of good bacteria, (a little like Kombucha) for the wetland tanks.
Bees
Mr Aung, ably assisted by his team of senior school pupils and specialists in the area, is our bee man. We now have three bee suits and the bee hives are regularly moved out of the forestry and into safer areas around our Staff Shack. We have eight hives and it won't be long before we can harvest our first lot of honey!
The Woodland Canopy
The woodland canopy, planted for HRH Queen Elizabeth II, is an exciting project that will enable Pembroke children to learn about sustainable farming methods, trees have been planted, paths cut and a large green house installed. The next phase will be the addition of a cow byre and chicken shed.
Adventure Learning
An extremely popular fixture in our timetable for middle school, Adventure Learning takes place in a wooded area between the Woodland Canopy and shack land although some lessons will take children to the Trickle, the stream that runs along the school boundary. These lessons allow children to learn about making fires, building shelters, using tools, orienteering, dam and bridge making, the classification of butterflies and much more.
Pre-Prep Woodland Playground
Our pre-prep woodland playground is an area of the forestry that has been set aside for pre-prep children. We have developed this area so that our little ones can have room to play among the trees and bushes, with places to hide, wooden stumps to climb on and logs upon which to balance. It is an area for having fun in nature with mud, sticks, bugs and friends.
Hybrid Car
We recently purchased a hybrid car which is another step towards reducing our carbon footprint. When there are more reliable hybrid or electric buses on the market we will certainly try and move to this form of transport.
Solar Panels
Both boarding houses have solar panels to help heat the water and our swimming pool is heated by solar. The pool cover is put on over night to conserve the heat.
New Trees
Each new child plants a tree during their first term at Pembroke and this year with the support of a generous donor we have planted a record number of trees. This has been a country-wide initiative of the Kenyan Government which has made tree planting a priority for the Nation.
Chemical free grounds
We do not use herbicides anywhere on our grounds, not even for the areas that are kept clear of vegetation under the electric fence.
