At Beaconsfield Upper, our school community values our many initiatives to raise awareness of water savings within our school and at home, with many of our community depending on tank water as their only supply.

In 2007, we were involved in the SWEP program with a water efficiency audit and consequent report, resulting in water saving measures such as: flow control valves on hand basins and water fountains, removal of water leaks.

Our school was also able to install large water tanks after receiving a Federal Community Water Project grant and a Bluescope Tank a Day.

One of the tanks is connected to our new buildings toilets, with automatic flush urinals and dual flush toilets and the other is used in our garden areas.

Our gardens are largely indigenous and native and heavily mulched.

Our vegetable garden was lost in our BER building and has now been relocated and is being redeveloped with a drip irrigation system from our water tank.

Our Envirokids place containers under our drink taps each day in term 1 and 4 and recycle this water onto our gardens.

Water used in art room is also recycled where possible onto our gardens. Signage decorates these areas and reminds us all to save water.

Each year our Level 4 students participate in the Melbourne Water Kids Teaching Kids program, presenting a workshop to other students from around the state and leads us into our annual Sustainability Fair, which is the culmination of inquiry units across our school. This works on a four year cycle with water being our focus again in 2013.

Finally, our use of the SETS program enables us to continue to audit our water usage and look for new ways to reduce our usage.