The Enviro Group was set up in 2019 by Mr Joe Anderson from the maths department and a group of very motivated students, some motivated enough to go vegetarian for the climate! This now even has a name: Climatarian!
The Group was inspired by Greta Thunberg and her dedication to raising awareness of the current climate crisis. With the help of the committee’s student leader, Ciara Sunnex, in Year 11 at the time, and two TPHS staff members, the group began to take action to be more climate-conscious students.
The group kicked off 2019 by participating in the Student Strike for Climate in Tauranga, which a group of Mount Maunganui College students organised. We also met with Dave Dobbin, (not the singer), a teacher who has been running a similar group at Trident High School in Whakatane where they have made substantial changes around their school.
We soon realised that our school has a huge carbon footprint and generates a lot of waste and that plenty needs to be done, lessons to be learned, problems solved, and changes made.
Mr Anderson retired at the end of 2019 but has continued to be involved with the group, and we have been helped and mentored by teachers Ms Michelle Jamieson, Ms Ali Rennie and Ms Kate Hills, and Jasrose Mallhi was the student leader in 2022. In 2023 Ms Sonia Deering and Ms Laura Marcellan stepped in to help organise.
Funding
In 2019 we were granted funding by TECT and the Bay of Plenty Regional Councils Environmental Enhancement Fund which went towards power saving devices, solar panels and a tree.
In 2022 we were granted funding again from the Environmental Enhancement Fund and from the Western Bay Of Plenty District Councils Community Matching Fund which has gone largely to more solar panels, but also to more trees and a pilot scheme for improved recycling. These funds have been added to by contributions of funds and services from local businesses who we have acknowledged in a sign, shown below, displayed on the Beattie Ave side of the Beatty block.
We wish to thank all these people for their support in our low carbon journey.
Power Saving
The school’s electricity bill is more than the gross annual salary of one teacher. This is a similar amount of power to 45 average NZ houses.
Since 2019, during each school holiday we have endeavoured to switch off as much power as possible, mainly the many hot water cylinders. We also used some funding from the BOPRC Environmental Enhancement Fund ( EEF ) to install electric timers to switch off our zip water boilers in the evenings and weekends.
Our power savings for a summer holiday is the equivalent of 7 tonnes of CO2 going into the atmosphere, if that amount of power was generated at the Huntly coal-fired power station.
The school is also replacing it’s light bulbs, as they fail, with LED bulbs, which use half the power of the old ones.
Solar Power
With funding from TECT and BOPRCs EEF, we were able to install 6kW of solar panels on the roof of the old block/ drama department in mid 2020.
The inverter that changes the direct current to alternating current, is connected to the internet and you can see the power being generated live. It shows how much CO2 emissions we’ve prevented, the tree equivalent that could absorb that CO2, and the dollars saved.
Shortly after installing our panels, we had a visit from another solar power company who analysed our energy usage and recommended a further 70kW would be our optimal capacity! We have sufficient roof space to provide our maximum power demand (150kW). However, this peak is in the early winter mornings when there is little sun, so serious battery power would also be needed. Unfortunately, this is unrealistic with current technology.
In early 2023 with funding from BOPRC’s EEF, followed by a grant from the WBOPDCs CMF we added a further 16.8kW of solar panels to the earlier array. This is still a long way from going off the grid, but if we turn off our hot water and fridges in the holidays, we will have surplus power on sunny days in January.
Trees
In 2021 we planted a Titoki tree in the Pod Quad, also funded by BOPRCs EEF. Besides absorbing lots of carbon from the air, it provides us with much-needed shade in this very sunny area of the school. It was quite an undertaking, as the ground here is very hard clay. It took quite a bit of muscle one Sunday, to dig a 1m cubed hole and replace the clay with compost to give our tree a better chance than the original trees planted here, which both died.
In 2022, we planted 6 more trees. A kowhai, donated by Deb Rahurahu of the Maori Department, thanks Deb, the others are two Rewarewa, two Titoki and another kowhai. Ciara Sunnex, Amber Thomson, Kyle Skiffington and his Dad, Taytum Ronaki-Clarke and Laura Marcellan all pitched in with this very labour intensive task.
Recycling
We’ve tried various combinations and positions of bins in classrooms, but so far, other than in the art department, keeping paper recycling apart from other rubbish has proved difficult. Bella Ngawhika is working on this in 2023.
An audit of our rubbish bins in late 2019 showed that we had quite a volume of plastic bottles and drink cans going to landfill. We got some recycled plywood from Dominion Salt and the Menz Shed built us a trial recycle station in 2022. This is in the process of being painted in 2023.
We will hopefully be able to provide more bins in future if there is enough student support. As the price of sending waste to landfill increases, the savings we generate will hopefully allow us to provide more recycle stations around the school.
Rubbish Clean Up
On a couple of weekends during 2021, some of the group gathered at school, armed with rubbish bags, to pick up litter in the area as a service to the community and a bit of team bonding.
Bay of Plenty Forum
A handful of our senior members met with others from similar groups at other bay schools at a meeting convened by Jim Critchley of Mount College for some information and idea-sharing and were very inspired by what others are doing.
The Wednesday Challenge
The Wednesday Challenge, an initiative funded by Waka Kotahi and BOPRC, encourages people to travel to work or play each Wednesday in a more climate friendly manner. In 2022, Harry Singh introduced this initiative to the staff and 12 staff joined up as the TPHS team. Most participated by carpooling, while some walked, and Mr Logan Adams even cycled in from Papamoa. There were 184 corporate teams involved and we placed 50th at the end of the year.