Center PEP50 les Oyats

Sharing best practices

Center PEP50 les Oyats

The centre PEP50 Les Oyats in Saint-Martin-de-Bréhal embarked on a sustainable approach 4 years ago now. Morgane SIMON, nature coordinator at the center and coordinator of sustainable development projects within the association PEP50 (Pupilles de l’Enseignement Public) de la Manche, tells us more.

Presentation of the plant

The Centre PEP50 “Les Oyats” is a venue for discovery classes from March to June and from September to October, and for vacation stays (during the summer, PEP colonies and welcome leisure centers by the week and the Bréhal leisure center by the day). It can also accommodate private individuals, seminars, association training courses, etc. In addition to director Eddy SMITS, we are 6 permanent staff, supplemented by seasonal reinforcements (animation, kitchen, service, cleaning). At the same time, we manage a 165-bed accommodation center coupled with group catering and activities in activity rooms or outdoors, as well as a campsite with a sanitary block for groups and a pony-club in operation from March to October.

Discovery classes are organized around different themes: horses, the prehistory of man, sustainable development (eco-citizenship – food waste – water and energy management….), circus/theater/English with outside contributors, and the most popular theme is around discovering the seaside (fauna/flora, fishing on foot, study of tidal phenomena, dunes, havre de la Vanlée with environmental education).

Examples of actions implemented

Signage of eco-gestures: “Turn off taps properly”, “Turn off lights when leaving a room” before being equipped with energy-saving light bulbs, water savers, electric timers….
Practical, well-identified and more harmonious selective sorting system (garbage cans for recyclable or non-recyclable waste)
Installation of a composting area to recover kitchen waste linked to meal preparation (notably vegetable peelings)
Support for the “Stop plastic” operation across all PEP centers in La Manche
Purchase of 1,5-liter stainless steel bottles used for travel (instead of 5,000 plastic bottles per year at Les Oyats alone)
Purchase of eco-cups
Prior to the children’s stay, a request is made for each child to have a water bottle
Call for short circuits (particularly seafood, vegetables…) for catering and offer more and more organic meals, despite the difficulties of sourcing the quantities required
Renovation of window frames in 2020 for better insulation and installation of some solar-powered roller shutters
Installation of an educational garden
Maintenance of the “zero phyto”

site.

Action coup de coeur

The educational garden aims to conserve and encourage biodiversity. Around 3 years ago, a group of children/teenagers (aged 10/15) designed a pond that has since attracted dragonflies, toads, frogs and insects of all kinds. Around the pond, vegetable patches have been planted with local plants, wild herbs and aromatic herbs (parsley, thyme and chives used in cooking – it doesn’t get more local than that! Maintenance is carried out regularly by groups, organizers and the Club Nature. A dozen nesting boxes and insect hotels have also been installed at the center.

We also have a few goats and chickens to which we give a little food scraps and bread. Whatever we do has to be effective and sustainable over time!

Testimony of Morgane Simon (Nature coordinator)

Would you like to share?

Contact : Amandine Launay – Tél. : 06 40 67 26 74 – Email : a.launay@otgtm.fr