In 2007, after completing our 5 star status in the AUSSi Sustainable Schools program, we signed up to the Carbon Sinks Schools Program lead by Planet Savers. This exciting program caught our eye as the next thing we could do as a college to further increase our input as an institute of environmental learning.

At the start of 2007 and 2008 we conducted an extensive ‘Travel to School’ survey, where we collated the map references and methods of transport to school of all students and staff in the college. From this data we calculated the average distance travelled and by which method. We were then able to calculate the fuel consumption and the resulting carbon emissions.

In addition to this we recorded and input to the Schools Energy Tracking (SETS) program all our water, waste, paper, gas and electricity bills for 2007 and 2008.

Despite an 11% increase in our enrolment from 2007, we were able this year to reduce most of our resource usage; our best efforts were a 35% reduction in water use and a 26% reduction in landfill  waste.

Analysing all the information from SETS, were we able to establish that our energy usage and carbon emissions were 300kW per student per year, which equates to 450kg of CO2 per student per year.

The journey of our success began with extensively auditing our buildings, resources and environmental practices. From there we established a College Environment Policy and set targets for ourselves to reach.