Sustainability

Climate Action 

In Term 4 2023, Danielle Mates, the teacher in charge of the school’s sustainability, applied to the Mornington Peninsula Shire for a Climate Action Grant. 

The proposal was to reduce the school’s energy consumption via split systems in classroom which were often left on due to remotes going ‘walkabout’ (or being hidden in student pencil cases or rooves!) This led to numerous year-round all staff emails searching for a remote and unfortunately, split systems being left on overnight, on weekends and even term breaks. 

Danielle was successful in her application and was awarded $5000.

The original idea was to permanently attach a remote to the wall in each classroom. However, after discussion with other staff members, it was discovered that this idea had been tried and tested, but failed due to the remotes being ripped off the wall or the cables cut. After a brainstorm with Drew King, it was decided each staff member would be allocated their own universal remote. 

A total of 80 universal remotes were purchased, engraved and allocated to staff members and cleaners. As there are various models of split systems throughout the school, Danielle had to work out the individual code for the split system in each classroom which proved to be a very time-consuming task. These codes were entered into a spreadsheet and shared with all staff. To make the use of the universal remotes even easier, a sticker with instructions on how to use the remote, including specific codes, expert recommendations for temperatures and pack up reminders were stuck in each classroom. Different stickers were installed for classrooms that had a split system with an inbuilt wall panel control and reminder stickers asking for light switches to be turned off were also stuck in each classroom.

Feedback from staff has been very positive and the emails searching for remotes have disappeared. Danielle intends to compare energy bills from the upcoming summer to the previous year’s to see if there has been a reduction in energy consumption.

Danielle would like to thank Jacqui Salter and the Mornington Peninsula Shire for supporting the initiative, Mark Schwarz from Pop Digital in Tyabb for his generosity of donating the stickers, and all staff for remembering to turn off the split systems and lights when leaving the classroom.

The planet thanks you.