A what centre?
SCENES.
You know. SCENES.
Scout Centres of Excellence for Nature and Environment.
Ok. So it isn’t exactly a NEWsflash. KISC was one of the first centre's credited with the SCENES award. Since then, the SCENES Network has been growing and there are now SCENES centres in countries around the world.
We asked Paul (UK), our Assistant Programme Director, a bit more about the scheme after his recent trip to Costa Rica for the 3rd SCENES Seminar.
In a nutshell, what is SCENES?
To be a SCENES centre, there are three key requirements that the centre needs to fulfill.
1. The Centre must have a natural area.
2. The Centre must provide environmental education.
3. The Centre needs to practice environmental management.
So how does being a SCENES centre help?
Being a SCENES Centre has several benefits. After all, as Scouts we should all aim to have the smallest impact on the environment as possible. In working with the natural area around us, we can practice efficient and sustainable environmental management while still providing our full service to our guests.
Nice. But thats it?
Well no. There is also something called the SCENES network. This is a platform to share ideas and information between all existing centres as well as to all Scout Centres that are interested in gaining the SCENES accreditation. WOSM has recently rolled out the new scouts.org website and the SCENES Network should have a place on here in the near future.
How about these other SCENES Centres. Where could I see one?
Well actually the number of accredited Centres is always increasing. In Denmark alone there are 3 Centres you can visit. Recently, Zellhof in Austria has been awarded the certificate. Further afield, there are 2 Centres in Canada (Camp Nemo and Blue Springs), one in Australia and many more.Kakani in Nepal is one of the most recent, check out Jon's (UK) Eco blog all about Kakani. And if you go to one of these, be sure to check out what they are doing for environmental education or witness some of their environmental practices in action.
It sounds great. But what does KISC do?
Well you will see in the SCENES Guidelines document, a list of actions that KISC does.
- KISC has a very advanced system of recycling and reusing for guests and staff.
- KISC use bicycles and trailers wherever possible instead of the vehicles.
- KISC has maintenance staff to repair instead of replace broken items.
- KISC uses the wood burner as much as possible to heat the chalet and its water.
- The timber used in the wood burner comes mostly from its own forests and is dried for two years to maximise efficiency.
- KISC aims to use 100% energy saving light bulbs, timers and sensors to reduce energy consumption.
- KISC use solar energy to heat the water in one of their campsite shower blocks.
- The Tower (accommodation building) is heated using water (heat – exchange system) from the Lötschberg train tunnel.
- KISC use eco friendly chemicals for cleaning.
- KISC constantly improves and extends its available Eco Programme for guests
- KISC buys products wherever possible from local suppliers.
- During Staff training at KISC, a very large emphasis is put on the eco practices and staff are strongly encouraged to improve their eco footprint personally, professionally and in their staff accommodation
- KISC has obtained the EU Eco Label for hospitality companies
And finally, where can I find more information?
Meanwhile, you can find lots of information about SCENES, the recent SCENES Seminar and the SCENES Network here.
More Links:
Iztaru (Costa Rica)
Zellhof (Austria)
