Green Initiative

Since the birth of the Acoustic Earth concept, a group of parents of Constantia Waldorf School have been designing and implementing a green initiative at the school. This environmental initiative runs in parallel to the organisation of the concert - which will be a Green Event. This ongoing green initiative will be funded from some of the proceeds of the Acoustic Earth event, so that the impulse towards raising environmental awareness amongst the children and towards creating systems which actively care for our environment will continue to live on in the school after the concert is over. The aim of the green initiative is to bring the school ever-closer to being environmentally-sustainable, which means that our goal is for the ongoing running of the school not to be depleting our environment, but for the school to be actively involved in the protection of and caring for our natural environment.

The children of Constantia Waldorf School will be involved in the ongoing environmental impact assessment and impact management, and will therefore be continuing to learn, through taking action, how to protect and care for our planet.

The Green Team is very fortunate to have as a member Steven Jacobs of The Natural Step. The Natural Step is an organisation working to Make Sense of Sustainable Development and towards Sharing a Framework for Environmentally-friendly Living. We have as a result of working with The Natural Step a plan through which we can realise our goal of environmental sustainability for the school. We also have the help and advice of leading educationists and specialists working in the field of Environmental Science.

We will be registering Constantia Waldorf School as an Eco-School, and have already begun the first part of this eco-school program, which is to conduct an environmental audit. The existing consumption of water and electricity by the school have been analysed. This information will give us a starting point from which we aim to move towards the reduction of water-use and to move towards sustainable energy resources.

The existing waste generated by the school and removed by the council has been recorded. The school has been operating a successful Recycling Centre for many years, and the aim is to increase the quantities of recyclable waste and to decrease the amount of waste removed by the council in the wheelie bins. The benefit of doing this is to the environment and is also beneficial to the school, which gets paid for all glass, tins, paper and plastic collected from the Recycling Centre.

Can-o-worms
Constantia Waldorf School placed a Can-o-worms outside one of their classrooms earlier in the year. This vermiculture system is gaining in fame and popularity since the Worm Farm at the Mount Nelson was recently featured on Carte Blanche. (Refer to the website www.can-o-worms.co.za for more information on the worms). It is envisioned that the school will be building a Worm Farm to cope with the organic waste generated by the school. All organic waste which cannot be fed to the worms will end up on the school compost heap and not fill rubbish trucks to be carried to dumpsites where it rots and generates harmful methane gases.

Soil For Life

The school is most fortunate to have as their neighbors Soil for Life, who have been for many years doing wonderful work educating individuals and communities on how to grow their own organic food, using water-wise, low cost, environmentally-friendly technologies in order to maximise the production of vegetables, fruit and herbs. Soil For Life recently started a vegetable garden for the school in order to demonstrate their methods to the children and so that we can harvest the organic fruit, vegetables and herbs for use in our own school tuck-shop. (refer to the website www.soilforlife.co.za for more information).

Organic Market
Constantia Waldorf School has restarted their organic market on a Friday afternoons from noon onwards selling vegetables, flowers, biodynamic apple juice, and the well-known Camphill products.

Transport
The Green Team will be conducting an audit into the transport being used to bring the children and teachers to school and to take them home. There is already a successful shuttle bus which runs between the school and Kalk Bay, and it is hoped that more of this kind of transport system can and will be used by the school community.