Briar+Wagner

Year 9 Japanese

From the excursion to St Leonard's College I learnt that they use many different techniques to keep their school sustainable. They use recycled paper for everything around the school to help save trees, they had some wind turbines in a field at the school to save them money and give energy back to the community which then saves them money on their energy bill. They have energy efficient lightbulbs all throughout the school which is a small thing but helps save lots of energy. They dont use text books to save paper and instead all the students at the school have laptops. They have indigenous plants throughout the school as the European plants that were originally planted were unable to stand Australias extreme heat and died. They also have many animals; they have chickens, sheep, cows and lpackas.

On the excursion yesterday to CERES I learnt about different ways of having a sustainable house. I learnt about the different things that can be used to maintain our environment and save our world. I learnt how nearly everything can be recycled and how everything can be used again for something different. In the sustainable house I learnt how a house can still look modern and nice whilst helping the envioronment. By learning this I think we can make our school more sustainable. We use a lot of energy as a school leaving computers and lights on. If we turned these of when they are not in use we could save a lot of energy. Also, as we are building a new area in our school we could help by using recycled building products to build the new areas. This helps the environment as it means we are not having to use new products which to be made would of had to have trees and rainforests cut down.

When the japanese girls came to visit we asked them some questions about how they keep their schools sustainable. They told us that they do small, simple things that help save energy and water. They save energy by turning off lights and computers when they are done using them. This helps save electricity and also keep the electricity bill down. They save water by turning off taps and have a ground water system. They help recycle by recycling paper and bottle caps. This not only helps save trees but reduces the amount of litter. They clean the hallways, classrooms and toilets to help reduce the amount of graffiti in their school.