The Green Beans are Lonsdale's Eco Committee, which was formed back in 2004 when we joined the Eco Schools programme. Today, everyone at Lonsdale is a Green Bean. The Green Beans Committee is made up of pupils, teachers, governors, nurses, LSAs, RSSWs, MSAs and parent representatives.  We meet once or twice every half term.  Eco Committee members hold the post for one school year and write an annual action plan to determine areas to work on.  We aim to make our school a "greener" and happier place, integrate sustainability and environmental issues into Lonsdale's 24-hour curriculum and build community links with like-minded people, schools and organisations. We want to educate pupils, their families, staff and the local community to value and be aware of their environment and to encourage a sustainable lifestyle, whilst being hands-on and having fun.

Since 2004, we have established recycling around the school, organised various “green” events and curriculum days; we participate regularly in local and national events like The Big Tidy Up, enter various competitions like Stevenage In Bloom and plant trees from the Woodland Trust. We have our own raised garden beds where fresh fruit and vegetables are grown and are pleased to run Lonsdale-Marriotts Gardening Club. We also organise an annual trip.

We have a fantastic school building with sedum roofs, solar panels and zero carbon emissions, and the bonus of Fairlands Lakes, Stevenage's beautiful parkland, on the doorstep.  Although we now have an A-rated Energy Certificate, there's plenty to do for the Green Beans. We need to explore, use and develop our new outside spaces further, work together with Marriotts School on our shared site and investigate how we can get our  local community involved whilst keeping up and continuing all our established “green” projects.