Sustainability

Bass Valley Primary School is GREEN!

Bass Valley Primary School started its Green journey in early 2013, where staff, students and the wider community began to document and recognise the green practices that occur at our school. This has enabled us as a school community to reflect and take actions towards a sustainable future.

Both the students and staff are actively involved in programs and initiatives towards caring for the environment and consequently reducing our carbon footprint.

As part of Bass Valley’s environmental commitment we have endeavoured to become a sustainable carbon neutral school – one that demonstrates green technologies, integrates sustainable operations and a sustainable curriculum which motivates all people in both our school and local community to live more sustainably. We are currently working towards our Resource Smart 5 star sustainability benchmarks and hope that this year to be recognised for 3 out of the 5 stars.

What we have achieved so far….

• Created ‘Student Environmental’ leaders and teams to oversee and participate in all things environmental around the school.
• Audits for energy, waste, water and biodiversity throughout the school
• A Three bin recycling system is in every room in the school.
• All recyclable materials are collected by the local council and taken to the transfer station for recycling.
• A Mobile phone muster is carried out on a regular basis.
• Recycling and reusing paper before it is put into the paper recycling bin.
• Used and private documents shredded and the provided as nesting material for school and family use.
• Established compost bins for garden waste.
• Developed and implemented waste, water and biodiversity modules as part of the school-wide sustainability curriculum.
• Established an eating area in the school yard.
• Established a 30 tree orchid and vegetable patch
• Created ongoing partnerships with local community organisations such as Landcare and Phillip Island Nature Parks.
• Participating in the ‘kids teaching kids’ program.
• Participated in ongoing community programs such as ‘tree planting’, ‘bush club’ and ‘Clean up Australia Day’.
• We are almost a self-efficient water school.  The school only needs  to use town water when the tanks become empty.
• Ensuring buildings are as energy efficient as possible by adding blinds, power saving options, temperature controls and sleep modes on computers and photocopiers.