How one CIMSPA partner is tackling sustainability amid rising temperatures

In October 2021 South Downs Leisure started to work on a sustainability strategy with the aim to be ready earlier this year

Ahead of an April deadline, Duncan Anderson, Chief Executive at South Downs Leisure, spearheaded a cultural change project that would encourage everyone from cleaners to the CEO himself to stand up for a sustainable future at the West Sussex-based chain of leisure centres.

“We started with a management workshop in November which was closely followed by extensive training sessions for staff on sustainable awareness, delivered by Dr. Amanda Turner, who is now a Trustee for South Downs Leisure.

“We then enrolled nine staff on an NVQ in Sustainable and Environmental Awareness. We set up a sustainable working group, and in August this year we are taking 12 staff for a trip out to the Rampion Wind Farm and to visit the Ford Recycling Plant to see the process of what happens with our waste,” Duncan said.

49 staff attend the 3-hour workshops from this they saw an increase in staff talking about sustainability with teams and start to make individual changes at work and home.

“We introduced a policy change to ensure that sustainability is an agenda item in all future meetings and for it to be addressed in all Board of Trustee reports in a similar way to that of equalities or health and safety.”

Nine staff have completed a six-week online NVQ in Sustainable and Environmental Awareness, including Duncan himself. This was quite a commitment and averaged out at approx. 12hrs a week of work.

Most of their meetings now take place online, in part thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic. All in-person meetings are considered in such a way that travel to and from is minimal.

They also have three e-bikes staff can use to commute between sites.

Since launching the policy in April, Duncan has visited all sites and upskilled management on everything the policy touches on.

The policy and subsequent strategy aim to encourage innovation, reduce risk, and make South Downs Leisure more resilient, enhance our reputation, motivate staff, and increase cost saving.

Some of the more practical steps they’ve taken to improve their sustainability include:

• Adjusting their pool temperature 1C at both their swimming facilities and they are currently trialling turning the pool temperature off over night with the pool cover on which could make the pools cooler first thing in the morning.
• Recently they purchased new gym equipment for two of their facilities and part of their tender was to see where the equipment was made and its impact. Most of the kit we purchased was made in the UK.
• They’re reducing the chlorine they use in the pools. This has also helped with the amount of time they need to back wash and as a direct result of reduced back washes they don’t need to use as much gas to heat the water back up.
• They have grey water recycling at one of their sites which uses the pool water overflow to flush the toilets in the building.
• So far, they have fitted over 500 solar panels onto two buildings.
• They’ve installed 4 beehives at the back of Worthing Leisure Centre, two members of staff have been trained as beekeepers and they have even produced leisure centre honey.
• Their three cafes have introduced plant-based menus for customers.

And much, much more...

CIMSPA itself has committed to improving its environmental impact over the next few years.

In our recent Meet our Team blog, we spoke to Sophie Bray who is heading up our ‘greenbots’ team.

‘Greenbots’ is CIMSPA’s new environment committee aiming to kickstart green thinking among the wider team. It follows in the footsteps of our ‘Wellbots’ team, which focuses on wellbeing.

“When I was interviewed for my role at CIMSPA, I asked what does the company do to promote sustainability?” she said. “CIMSPA already had some schemes in place like Cycle to Work, but – with my background – they wanted me to come in and take a lead role in spearheading sustainability. As the professional body for sport and physical activity, it was time to put the environment at the heart of everything we do.”

Sophie recently delivered CIMSPA’s new environment plan to the organisation at our team day a few months ago, which was well received by all of the team.

READ MORE ABOUT CIMSPA’S COMMITMENT TO SUSTAINABILITY