Sustainability Committee

Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue9 1–31 October 2020

 After 4 months working from home, many of us are now back in the office. During that time, the sustainability committee worked hard towards our goal of reducing RSAA's environmental impact. We now have a quote for installing solar panels at the school, which would generate at least 15% of our electricity and save $34,000 per year! We're looking for options to fund it - no mean feat in the current financial situation (if anyone has a spare $75k - $100k lying around, please get in touch...!).

Many of you will have heard during the recent culture discussions that we are planning to set up a community garden to grow vegetables and provide a quiet place to get away from work for a few minutes. We're in the process of selecting a location at the moment, and hope to start planting before the end of the year. Keep an eye out for a call for volunteers in the coming months...

At the start of the year we put food waste bins into each of the kitchens, and it was great to see how quickly people started using them! Recently we passed a milestone of 50kg of food waste diverted from landfill. The attached figure shows the breakdown by building over time. As the social hub of the school, Possum Hall has traditionally held the top spot, but with the new social distancing restrictions, Duffield, with its large student population, is poised to take the lead!

If you have any ideas for sustainability initiatives at RSAA, feel free to get in touch with any of us at any time.

 

Phil Taylor (chair)

Denise Castle

Markus Dirnberger

Gaston Gausachs

Nic Killerby-Smith

Stephanie Monty

Tony Travouillon