Living Sustainably

The Department of Education and Training's Year of Learning for Sustainability in 2010 was a great awareness raiser for our students, families and staff. Sustainability is all about reducing human impact on the environment. We are told that if humankind continues to consume non-renewable resources at the current rate our planet, and our descendents, will suffer. The good news is that if we individually make small changes to what we do and the way we live then our impact is reduced.

Here at the DESU we have taken steps to avoid, reduce, reuse and recycle to live more sustainably. On the school front we have begun to recycle our plastic and metal containers and we now use paper with a recycled component (you can imagine how many trees this would save!). We have had rainwater tanks installed which provide water to flush our new dual flush toilets. Change can, however, take a while, so we are still working on developing our planned productive garden of citrus fruits, herbs and vegetables in conjunction with class 5/6W from Sir Eric Woodward School.

Changes don’t have to be huge; little things can also make a difference. We are now much more aware of the electricity we use – the last one out turns the light off and we often come back to our desks to find that someone has helpfully turned off our computer screens while we were away.

Our students also took steps to reduce their impact on the environment. It was really pleasing to see our students investigating their use of plastic bags and the subsequent environmental impact. Our students were able to put this learning into action to show how they can live more sustainably to reduce their (and their family’s) use of plastic bags. Well done!

It just shows that everyone can do something to improve our environment and to live more sustainably.