§ Mr. WillisTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what progress has been made with his Department's Sustainable Development Strategy. [166786]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeThe Sustainable Development Action Plan for Education and Skills was launched in September last year. The action plan has four key objectives: education for Sustainable development (ESD); environmental impact of the DfES and its partner bodies; environmental impact of the education estate; and local and global partnership activity. We are already making progress in several areas against the Action Plan. The following are just some examples.
We are supporting subject associations in their work to build on ESD within the curriculum.On food in schools, we are working with Defra on guidance for school governor organisations. Through website forums we will invite feedback from school managers, governors and parents and report on Food Procurement Implementation.We are working closely with the Department for Transport, and have jointly published "Travelling to School: An Action Plan5" which gives guidance on sustainable school travel.Colleges and universities are developing as sustainable organisations, promoting themselves as exemplars and sharing best practice with other institutions.The Skills agencies have created an online 'toolkit' to encourage, support and promote best practice throughout the sector.Internationally, we are contributing to the drafting of the United Nations strategy on ESD.