IN OUR SCHOOLS GREEN STA R GOALS
St Benedict’s Catholic School in Shaw is on a mission to become Townsville’s greenest school, aiming for a Green Star rating of five.
St Benedict’s, which only opened this year, aims to embrace sustainable practices in their buildings, gardens and lessons.
A Green Star is a trusted Australian mark of quality in design, determined by the Green Building Council Australia, and is based on construction and operation of sustainable buildings, fit- outs and communities.
The Green Star performance assesses the building’s operations against nine sustainability categories including management, indoor environment quality, energy, transport, water, materials, emissions, innovation and land use and ecology.
Director of Leadership and Development for Townsville Catholic Education Ross Horner is confident the school will achieve a Green Star rating of five.
“We are aiming for a five Green Star rating in the design of St Benedict’s Catholic School, which will minimise the environmental footprint and build a better future for all of us,” he said.
Mr Horner said the process of applying for a Green Star rating began a long time ago, and the school was required to become a member of the Green Building Council of Australia.
“When we did join and told them what we were trying to do, they were quite excited because there’s a lack of certified sustainable primary schools,” he said.
“From then, we had to talk to our consultants, architects and other advisers saying we want to be in this Green Star space all the time.”
Mr Horner said the students themselves are involved with creating a more sustainable school, and are learning about sustainable practices that they can take forward into their high school and adult lives.
“We wanted it to be about the students and educating the future generations about the world they live in,” he said.
“Everything that’s happening, the students are learning about it.
“The student body are very in tune with this, they’ve very interested.”
Mr Horner said it was a big decision to dedicate so much commitment to sustainability, but the right decision.
“To our knowledge, we are actually the only self- funded Green Star school in Australia,” he said.
The school was specifically designed to be water and power conscious and features a highly energy efficient airconditioning system, plus all trees that were cleared during construction remained on site and were re- used as mulch in the gardens.
St Benedict’s Principal Penny Collins said that the schools’ sustainability has proven a great tool in teaching the students about the environment and how important it is to look after it.
The school is making an effort to simplify sustainable travel allowances with bike paths, showers, lockers and bike racks for students and teachers to encourage them to ride to school if possible.