Interview - Cheryl Hadland, managing director of Tops Day Nurseries and founder of GECCO

WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO ACHIEVE WITH THE PETITION?

We’re hoping to get a real groundswell of support. We’re going to be hand-delivering a letter to the DfE about sustainability in the EYFS in February. I started a collaborative group last October, with Childbase, the Early Years Alliance, NDNA, PACEY, some academics and others, to co-ordinate our work on this.

WHAT ARE THE SIMPLEST THINGS THAT NURSERIES CAN DO?

We have checklists at https://gecco.org.uk/ to help people get started with what you can do and why, to appeal to different interests. It might be swapping to glass milk bottles, or swapping lightbulbs, for example.

Where do you start? Your biggest bills. Work out how much energy you are using every half hour, either with a smart meter, or ask your supplier. Some may be leaving the heating on over the weekend, or the immersion heaters. There is a lot you can do; for tips look at our checklists. You can save lots of money and be more sustainable at the same time.

WHAT ABOUT FOOD WASTE?

With nursery food, you can cut down on meat and dairy. In a lasagne use half lamb or beef mince and swap in Quorn. That’s what supermarkets do anyway – but they do it for cost, we do it to be more sustainable.

At the moment the Government pays us to give children a third of a pint of milk a day. This is an out-of-date policy, we should have an option. We have a problem with childhood obesity, and a lot of children have allergies, and parents want to have alternatives available. It’s a bit under the radar and no-one likes to talk about it, but nurseries often end up giving pints of milk away at the end of the week.

Cows’ milk is made for baby cows, not children. I’d like nursery owners and parents to have the choice to have oat milk, or fruit and veg instead.

YOU HAVE BEEN ENCOURAGING PARENTS TO USE REAL NAPPIES IN YOUR NURSERIES…

It’s a slow process. Plastic nappies are relatively cheap short term, but cost more long term. Training is vital. I offer all my staff washable nappies and they then take the lead with parents. In our Wareham nursery, the vast majority of parents are now using real nappies, which is great, saving money and the climate. In another of our nurseries we only provide real nappies.

Parents only have to bring in the nappies they want to take their children home in – and we encourage them to use cloth nappies. We launder nappies at the nursery, just with a normal washing machine and hanging them up to dry, and it’s all included in the fees.

Ninety per cent of parents in a survey we did said they wanted us to be a sustainable setting. Quite a few say they have chosen us because we are sustainable. By all means keep the disposables for emergencies. Sustainability is something we all need to work on.

HOW DID YOUR SOLD-OUT CONFERENCE AT THE NURSERY WORLD SHOW GO?

The conference went very well, with lots of lovely feedback about how useful and inspirational it was; we had tears and laughter, and I’m looking forward to being able to offer more seats, and possibly workshops in Manchester at Nursery World North.

• Cheryl’s book Creating an Eco-Friendly Early Years Setting will be published by Routledge in June and is available for pre-order. For a 20 per cent discount, enter code FLR40 at the checkout at www.routledge.com