Peninsula SDS has been part of the Sustainable schools program since late 2004. The school became a 5 Star Sustainable School in just over 12 months. This has led to many changes in the physical grounds and the behaviours attitudes of the staff and students. Peninsula SDS is marching on. The school is about to embark in a world first, being part of the Dromana Clusters Gold Star Schools program and trading carbon credits. The school is currently running Carbon Neutral. That is the amount of carbon the school produces from the use of electricity is being offset by the number of trees we plant each year. With Power Rangers in every classroom, last year we reduced out energy consumption by 4.5%. Last year we needed to play 350 trees to offset our carbon emissions, this year we only need to plant 280. Our aim is still to plant 350 trees, which means we will start to form a carbon sink which we can trade. Keep up the great work students and staff.
• Tanks for storm water collection for watering the Primary industries yard has been installed
• ‘Water Rats’ in each classroom monitor taps etc to ensure no wastage.
• Middle Years Students collect water from bubbler taps in buckets & emptied on to garden areas rather than entering sewerage. This is currently to only water source used on the gardens. There are no watering facilities in the school for gardens or lawns.
• Accredited Water- Learn It Live It School.
• Participated in the 2007 Melbourne Water’s Frog Census
• ‘Power Rangers’ in each class room ensure lights and heaters are switched off when not required; computers are automatically switched off at the end of day.
• ‘Waste Warriors” collect food scraps for the worm farms & chooks; lunches & morning teas are eaten inside to reduce litter, ‘Nude Food Wednesday’ for lunches across the school. Classroom rubbish bins have been reduced from 60Lt bins to 5Lt bins.
• Secondary students run the recycling programs, where SKM recycling bins are used to collect all recyclable materials from the classrooms, including: paper, cardboard, glass, plastics and cartons. Printer cartridges are also recycled.
• Environmental School Captains working in conjunction with classroom monitors help implement whole school environmental initiatives.
• ‘Biodiversity Bravehearts’ monitor and record wildlife seen in and around the school grounds.
• Biodiversity: 20% increase in native plant species planted in the school grounds.
• Energy: 4.5% reduction in usage.
• Water: 50% reduction in usage to date compared to same time last year.
• Waste: 50% reduction of waste to landfill.
