Gabrielle+Grech

Year 9 Japanese

Thursday 18th March - Excursion to St. Leonards.

Whilst at the Cornish Campus of St. Leonards College it was interesting to see the efforts that the school was taking, and had already taken to make the school more environmentally friendly and most importantly sustainable. It was amazing how the school worked around the idea of having an environmentally sustainable place where people could learn. Below are some examples of the steps they had taken to reach their goal of being a perfectly sustainable school.

Passive Air Conditioning - This works by running water through the walls. The cardboard walls soak up the water and then cooling down the room.

Wind Turbine - This is a way the school makes clean energy from using wind. When wind is at the correct speed the wind turbines spin and create energy then channel it back into the ground. This, as well as providing energy for the earth helps the school because they get a credit on their energy bill because they are giving energy back.

Water Tanks - These are positioned at the back of the school. They collect rain water from any rain that may occur, and then they use this water on surrounding plants.

Water Bladder - Under the school there is a massive water bladder that stores all the water that comes down from the gutters on the roof.

Other things that the school makes an effort to do are: > > Sustainability Rings - These were created for the school to help them separate the different ways in which we can help be sustainable in 5 ways.
 * No Textbooks
 * Virtual Classrooms
 * Curriculum must revolve around the sustainability rings
 * Food scraps go to the schools animals
 * The school plants indigenous plants which are suited to the environment
 * Community Gardens
 * Visit 3rd World countries
 * Different Bins for recycling
 * Learn about global sustainability
 * No bells or loud speakers, reduces energy out-put
 * 1) Enough For All Forever
 * 2) Personal (Health, Mental, Physical)
 * 3) Urban Technology
 * 4) Social
 * 5) Natural