Living Green

Primary Vege Garden
The Living Green Group is for St Andrew's parents and friends who support environmental initiatives in the college. In 2013, our Primary Gardening projects need your support!
If you would like to contribute by volunteering your time or donating materials, please contact Mrs Kylie Moses on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or Mrs Conny Bibby on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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Living Green at St. Andrew's


Schools Tree Day on Friday July 27, 2012

Schools Tree Day, Friday July 27 and National Tree Day (Sunday July 29) combine to make Australia's biggest community tree-planting and nature care event.

 

It was co-founded by Olivia Newton-John and Planet Ark in 1996 and since then more than 2.8 million volunteers have planted over 17 million native trees and shrubs!

 

It's a day to get down and get your hands dirty to help the planet!

 

Children and parents will be planting native seedlings at St Andrew's on Friday July 27.

 

If you can help with planting, please contact your child's teacher or Kylie Moses (contact details below).

 

For more information about Tree Day - http://treeday.planetark.org/schools/

 

Benefits of contact with nature: Healthy minds, healthy bodies

There is an emerging body of local and international research linking childhood contact with nature with a range of health and wellbeing benefits, including:

> Positive mental health outcomes, such as reduced symptoms and severity of ADHD, reduced stress levels, reduced depression, and increased confidence and self esteem;

> Physical health benefits, such as reduced risks of obesity and myopia, and improved recovery from certain medical conditions;

> Enhanced intellectual development, such as improved creativity and imagination, and improved academic performance;

> A stronger sense of concern and care for the environment in later life.

The Planet Ark Nature and Children’s Health Survey showed that people do not generally associate regular contact with nature as an effective way to address these issues.

 

For a range of outdoor activities with kids, go here: http://treeday.planetark.org/involved/kids-activities.cfm

 

Kylie Moses

SAAC Living Green Group

0411 238 753 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

 

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The College is delighted to annouce that we have secured a $10,000 grant to implement many of our wonderful 'green' initiatives for 2010. This will allow us to initiate the St Andrew's Low Carbon Diet Challenge, take part in the Travelsmart Week , enjoy the Food-Wise Week, initiate a Recycling Week and also a 'Count the Carbon' Week. It should be a wonderful year of green developments for St. Andrew's.

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click here to see some great tips - 'Energy Hogs'

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2010 EVENTS

Native Planting - August 28th

The Living Green Group would like to invite college families and friends to help for an hour or so to plant our native tubestock on Saturday August 28th. Kids are welcome to help too. BYO tools or just lend a hand to green our college while Camping on Campus. For more information or to volunteer, please contact Kylie Moses on 0411 238 753

Enviroweek
Enviroweek is an annual, week long celebration of our environment that highlights the challenges we are all facing to preserve it. In the lead up to Enviroweek participants sign up to take on a challenge. This is a challenge that is good for our environment and is actually challenging.

St Andrew's Living Green Group Enviroweek Challenge Team
This is your chance to make a world of difference from September 12-18 and raise funds for an environmental charity too. During Enviroweek become a Green Hero, an inspiration for us all and a beacon of hope for our environment. The Living Green Group has committed to planting 100 native trees. To become a Green Hero register here http://fundraising.enviroweek.org/event/enviroweek2010 , select a charity, join our existing team "St Andrew's Living Green Group Team" (password is SAAC2010), take on a challenge, get sponsored by your friends and fundraise for your favourite environmental organisation.
To donate to our team click here http://fundraising.enviroweek.org/st_andrews_living_green_group.

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Do you already save 2000kg Carbon per month?
Please take a minute to complete the values (1 if you do the action  e.g. wash in cold water once per week, 0 if you don't). Families who complete it and attach it back to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it by May 27 will enter our Low Carbon Diet prize draw.

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Waste-Wise -Do the 4R's!
The best way to reduce your waste is to remember to Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.

Refuse
Say NO to plastic bags, bring your own bags and refillable water bottles.
Indicate on your letterbox that you do not want to receive any advertising material or other junk mail.
Refuse promotional material you don't want or need at events and functions.

Reduce
Buy in bulk to reduce packaging.

Drink tap water -large amounts of energy goes into extracting or making, packaging and transporting bottled water and soft drinks. Buy a reusable water bottle or flask, and get a home water filter if you're worried about water quality. Take a few minutes to watch this video on the story of bottled water and share it with friends.

Purchase items with the least amount of packaging, avoiding products with excessive packaging

Buy refillable products and containers you can use over and over again.

Don't print out from your computer unless it's really necessary, and set your printer to print on both sides of the paper and/or 2 pages per side.

When buying printers or fax machines, ensure they have ink or toner saving modes such as "draft" and use refillable cartridges.

Store foods in reusable containers rather than plastic wrap, plastic bags or foil.

Cut down on processed foods, put fruit on the lunchbox instead of packaged snacks.

Cut down on take away food sold in disposable containers, pizza boxes without food scraps can be recycled.

Re-use
Take your own reusable bags when shopping.
Compost food scraps, leaves, grass clippings and soft stemmed plant to turn them into fertiliser for your garden instead of sending them to landfill.
Refurbish or repair items, or buy second-hand.

Recycling
Recycling is an easy and effective way for people to reduce waste. The first step to recycling well is sorting the recyclables from the rubbish. Unless the recyclable material is properly sorted it contaminants the recyclables and they remains rubbish. Check with your local council about what you can go into your Yellow-lidded wheelie bin and where you can recycle those other items, like batteries.

Use your yellow lidded recycling bin properly. Check with your local council about what can be recycled in your yellow lidded recycling bin (plastic bags, aluminium foil, tetra-paks cannot go in).

Recycle everything you can, including items which can't go into your yellow lidded bin. Visit www.recyclingnearyou.com.au -a great site that tells you how and where to recycle just about anything.

MobileMuster is a free industry program that can help with mobile phone recycling. A specially-marked mobile phone collection bin is provided in the St Andrew's Main Office.

Empty printer cartridges can be recycled in specially marked boxes at any Australia Post, Harvey Norman, Officeworks, Dick Smith Electronics or Tandy location.

Give away lounges, microwaves, pots and pans, cutlery, crockery, fridges and furniture to friends or relatives who may be able to use them. If no one you know has a need for old items, contact charity groups who can reuse or resell these item wisely.

Plastic bags can be recycled at your local shopping centre. Year 4, 5, and 6 are collecting supermarket bags this week, and re-using them at the College Fair.

Remember to recycle when away from home at major public facilities including shopping centres, stadium and sporting venues, and events and festivals. Keep an eye out for specially marked bins at our College Fair, or take your recycling home with you.

More and more products are now being made from recycled material -for example some toilet papers are made from recycled paper and cardboard. Look for these products and help support the recycling market.

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Travel-Wise Week May 4 - 7

• Driving an inefficient car is one of the biggest contributors to our carbon footprint! If you have a choice try and use the most economical car, especially for long distance driving.
• The Driving Tips below can really make a difference to your weekly fuel bill, as well as saving greenhouse gas emissions.
• The children will be tracking trips saved this week, so walk, cycle, bus or bring a neighbour to school. Both families get "credit" for keeping a car off the campus!
• Just one shared pick-up and drop-off per week is 20% off your school driving and it will make a significant difference to your fuel usage if you live more than 5 km away from school.

• Friday is "Walk or Ride Safely to School Day", join the SAAC bike train from Coolum or Peregian Springs, or walk from Peregian Springs, and there's an unofficial mountain bike train from Doonan too.
• All participants will enter the prize draw for bike vouchers, and enjoy a pancake, fruit and yogurt from Qld Yogurt Co. on arrival.
• Helpers are needed, please contact Oliver Patten if you want to be involved in the rides or walk, or contact me if you can help with breakfast.

Please email me if you have more Travel-Wise Tips for us to share. See you on Friday morning!

Happy travels,
Kylie Moses
St Andrew's Living Green Group

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The latest initiative is here!

Do you want to lose 2000kg? Take the Low Carbon Diet!

Sign up for the Low Carbon Diet now and get involved in reducing your carbon footprint. Complete and return page one of the form emailed earlier this week and start making changes to your lifestyle that can reduce your carbon production.

Copies are also available at the Main Admin Office. !

Completed forms with your first electricity meter reading are due Tuesday April 27th, so we can complete the diet by the end of May. All registered families will receive a booklet of tips, and links to information about services and rebates available to help your family to live greener.

Energy-Wise Week - April 23-30 - Sign up for the Low Carbon Diet and start saving energy and water this week! Plant tagging by Yr 7 in our campus "What Local Native Plant is That?"

Travel-Wise Week - May 4-7 - Use a bus, carpool, ride or walk to school to save carbon pollution. Ride or Walk Safely to school with Mum on Friday May 7! Email Mr Oliver Patten for various meeting points.

Food-Wise Week - May 10-14 - Primary Litter-free Lunch challenge all week, Fresh Juice & Smoothie sale on Thursday May 13.

Waste-Wise Week - May 17-21 - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Prep-Yr 3 Recycled Art, Yr 4-6 Rubbish Bag Challenge. Collect used clothes, books and toys for the Fair.

Count the Carbon Week -May 24-28 - Read your electricity meter again, how much have we saved? Plant a native seedling, collect yours at the Fair.

Click here on how to read your meter

Households need to:

NOW:

1. Collect a number of past energy bills to gauge your energy usage.

2. Divide the total KWh of power used, by the number of days in the billing period to get a daily average.

3. Read your power meter on Day 1 of the ‘diet plan’.

4. Return FORM A to the school office to be forwarded to Mr. Patten (once the initial information is collated, we will return your form with a Hints & Tips booklet)

LATER

5. Read your meter again at the end of the nominated period, Day 30.

6. Calculate your current KWh of power used per day.

7. Compare your current usage with old usage.

8. List some of the activities which you employed to reach this reduction.

9. Be creative – we are looking for the creative as well as the more obvious methods to reduce energy usage.

10. Record your results by returning to Mr. Patten

For further information or to get involved, contact Kylie Moses on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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Our planned projects for 2010 include:

Travelsmart - every trip we save by carpooling, cycling or walking to school saves petrol and reduces car emissions. Reduce and avoid the 3:00pm traffic-jam!

Reducing Energy and Water Use - setting air-conditioners at 24 degrees, switching off lights, reducing pool filter time, and turning off items on stand-by, all reduce energy use significantly.

Rubbish Reduction - Litter-free Lunches keep school tidy and make no landfill! Plastic wraps may be unsafe for food, and alfoil is non-recyclable, use hard plastic containers for lunches. Refuse or re-use plastic bags.

Recycling - paper collection in classrooms (after using both sides),and separating cans, bottles and cardboard for recycling, plus collecting food scraps for worm farms/compost reduces most general rubbish!

High School Vegetable Tank Gardens - our flourishing gardens are producing salad vegetables for a local charity and school use.

Primary Vegetable Garden Project- this will be a child-centred project and we hope to have an expert guide us, but will need donations of materials and enthusiastic muscle to get the project off the ground.

Native planting - re-planting species endemic to our unique ecosystem will provide habitat for the endangered wildlife who live in our campus.

Slow food - buying local, seasonal produce at the markets and supermarket, and Australian-made products when possible reduces the transport cost and carbon footprint of everything you buy.

In addition to the SAAC community, the Sunshine Coast has many community groups and businesses with expertise to assist green and sustainable projects. This website will offer links to this information for parents to use and promote green living in your homes and businesses.  Please let us know if you have something green to share with our community.The State Government Climate Smart website is a great place to start with information about many different ways to reduce, re-use and recycle in your home and business, visit: www.climatesmart.qld.gov.au .

Your expertise and enthusiasm are most welcome! Please contact Kylie Moses ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 0411 238 753) to contribute or find out more about Living Green at St Andrew's.