Sustainability Report

The building is powered by solar panels and an Australian-made, recyclable battery system from GenZ. Individual classrooms in the building are monitored on dedicated sub-circuits, with real-time energy-use metrics feeding into displays in each room, creating opportunities for learning and live behaviour adjustment to enhance efficiency. The battery storage and inverter system is accessible from the courtyard via louvred swing doors, creating an opportunity for interactive learning.

The building is modelled to be net-zero in energy use. The building is powered with a solar panel system that produces 126% of the building’s modelled energy use. After building loads are met, additional energy tops up a battery system to provide a no-fail system, and once the batteries are full, any excess energy feeds other buildings on campus. The energy-efficient passive thermal design, lighting and appliances help keep energy usage low and excess energy produced by the panel system is fed back to power other buildings at the school.

The selection of materials was driven by whole lifecycle data. The Durrapanel strawboard has locked up over 91,000kgCO2e through biogenic storage. The biochar embedded in the durrapanel has locked up over 15,000kgC02e. All parts of the building are either 100% recyclable or 100% compostable, and many are biogenic, carbon-capturing materials, such as durrapanel strawboard and Australian-grown hemp joinery board. Low-carbon options were used whenever possible, such as Alspec Ultra Greencore window frames and Boral Envirocrete Plus concrete. All glazing unit framing is made with low emissions Alspec Ultra Greencore aluminium, using a high percentage of recycled aluminium to massively reduce the carbon emissions embodied in these elements at just 4kgCO2e/kg of aluminium, a quarter of the standard of around 16kgCO2e/kg of aluminium. The growth of plants on the roof will continually sequester between 3,000-5,000kgCO2e per year. The building has the first 100% Australian-grown-and-made hemp joinery board. All joinery and student desks are made from industrial hemp. Hemp crops grow in 90 days, sequester more carbon dioxide than any other plant humans grow, restore farm soils and create an incredibly strong fibre. The joinery panels were produced locally in Pakenham.

All materials used in the building comply with strict low-VOC or no-VOC standards. There is no formaldehyde. The natural strawboard panels breathe. They are impregnated with 100 grams of biochar per square metre. Biochar is a pollutant filter – it is used in water and air filtration systems – meaning that as the strawboard breathes, it filters toxins, pollutants, and VOCs from the internal environment. This is the first school in Australia to use this system.