Part of Alban City’s mission is to ‘provide an environment that puts children’s needs at the top of the agenda’. We see that in its widest sense. We want the school to be a sustainable and responsible citizen within our environment. The school has created a Grove where parents, pupils, and friends of the school can make donations that result in the planting of trees, contributing to the rewilding of the Caledonian Forest. In doing so, we aim to help address the climate crisis, provide habitat for native wildlife, and offset the school’s consumption, working towards a carbon-negative impact on the environment.  

• Next Target: 500 Trees.

We are proud to announce that we have surpassed our prior target of 300 trees, successfully offsetting five years of our natural gas emissions—less than five years since the Grove was initiated. This means we are fully offsetting our gas usage on an ongoing basis. But we believe we can and should do more.   Reason for this target: While our current tree planting offsets our gas consumption, the urgency of global warming requires us to go further. Climate change is accelerating, and we aim not only to offset our emissions but also to contribute to a net reduction in greenhouse gases. Our new target of 500 trees will help us go beyond neutrality and start making a more significant positive impact.   In moving to Green Energy suppliers (selecting only 100% renewable electricity suppliers), the school is carbon neutral for our electricity usage. However, we continue to address our natural gas consumption. Benchmarking in 2019 showed our gas usage resulted in approximately 15 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. With 60 trees offsetting a year’s worth of emissions, surpassing 300 trees means we've already offset five years of emissions. This new target will help us offset even more and contribute positively to the environment. We also encourage our community to learn more about the impact of rewilding by watching "Scotland - The New Wild" a BBC series that showcases the transformation of the Scottish Highlands and the role of the Caledonian Forest. It’s an inspiring reminder of what we are working towards and the broader impact of our efforts. Watch it here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001qs71   Want to see what a grove of 300 trees looks like? Imagine a future where forests are so rare that the only place to see them is in a stadium. This is the vision Swiss-born artist Klaus Littmann brought to life in an Austrian football stadium, inspired by Max Peintner’s prescient illustration The Unending Attraction of Nature. Peintner’s drawing envisioned a world where forests had been eradicated by industrialization, existing only as exhibits in specially designated spaces. Littmann’s installation, For Forest—The Unending Attraction of Nature, brings this dystopian future into stark reality, planting 300 native trees in the stadium as a powerful statement on the pressing environmental challenges we face. Littmann describes the installation as “a rallying cry for the most pressing issue of our generation.” He hopes it will challenge our perception of nature and highlight the risk that natural spaces could become as rare and curated as zoo exhibits. The installation not only showcases the beauty of nature but also serves as a somber reminder of what could be lost without action.   Want to learn more about this thought-provoking project? Read more here: https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/artists-planted-300-trees-stadium-warn-climate-change.   Join us in this journey by donating to our Grove and helping us plant the next 200 trees. Together, we can make a lasting impact on our environment!