A green future at Trinity

As the Renewal Project moves forward in its goal to prepare the School for the future, we’re taking a moment to look at the elements of the project that are ensuring sustainability targets are met.

The whole Renewal Project has been managed using an Ecologically Sustainable Development consultant, to ensure that demolition, construction, and everything in between is meeting ESD requirements. This process has been carried out by engineering consultant firm, Cundall.

Cundall also conducted a sustainability workshop with the School in 2021 to understand issues and opportunities for the design, construction, and operation of the School to include environmental and social initiatives and processes. Since then, Cundall has provided plans outlining requirements, a Climate Change Adaptation Plan (CCAP), and other reports to ensure that the project is in line with Green Star standards.

While the Renewal Project is not seeking a formal Green Star certification, the project is aiming for an overall rating in line with their 4-star (or higher) certification.

Stage 3A of the Renewal Project has already received a score in line with this rating goal.

There are a lot of different aspects taken into consideration to determine the sustainability of a project, including responsible practices, air quality, acoustic comfort, lighting comfort, greenhouse gas emissions, electricity reduction, construction and demolition waste, light pollution and many more.

What is involved in a Green Star certification?

Green Star is a rating system that assigns ‘points’ to different elements of sustainability practices. The system takes the following into account:

• Management aims to encourage and reward the adoption of practices and processes that support best practice sustainability outcomes throughout the different phases of a project’s design, construction, and ongoing operation.
• Indoor Environment Quality aims to encourage and reward initiatives that enhance the comfort and wellbeing of occupants. The credits within this category address issues such as air quality, thermal comfort, and acoustic comfort.
• Energy aims to reward projects that are designed and constructed to reduce overall greenhouse emissions from operations by addressing energy demand reduction, use efficiency, and generation from alternative sources.
• Transport aims to reward projects that facilitate a reduction on the dependency of private care use as an important means of reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions, as well as to encourage the provision of alternative forms of transportation.
• Water aims to encourage and reward initiatives that reduce the consumption of potable water through measures such as the incorporation of water efficient fixtures and building systems, and water re-use.
• Materials aims to address the consumption of resources for the project, by encouraging the selection of low-impact materials.
• Land Use and Ecology aims to reduce the negative impacts on sites’ ecological value as a result of urban development and reward projects that minimise harm and enhance the quality of local ecology.
• Emissions aims to assess the environmental impacts of ‘point source’ pollution generated by projects and reduce their effects on the atmosphere, watercourse, and native animals.
• Innovation aims to recognise the implementation of innovative practices, processes, and strategies that promote sustainability in the built environment.

The School Council visiting the site recently

Just another step towards a more sustainable future

While the Renewal Project is a major piece of work in the life of the School, its sustainability goals work in tandem with the wider goals of the School.

Mr Stephen Heanly, who heads up Trinity’s Environmental and Sustainability Committee, says that the committee’s initiatives have taken hold in the School, with students and staff willing to go out of their way to dispose of their waste responsibly and switch to more sustainable ways of travel.

“Staff are carpooling, riding bikes, walking, and taking public transport where they can – it’s always a wonderful sight,” he says. “And, we’ve increased our sustainability stations – where everyone can dispose of their organic, recyclable, and general waste accordingly – around the whole campus over the last 12 months.”

“Our Bottles for Battens campaign is also going strong, with students disposing of their Return and Earn containers in our orange bins. The Community Service Co-curricular group then collects the bottles and Mr Mickler co-ordinates the delivery to a Return and Earn centre, where the money is then directly deposited into an account that contributes to Batten Disease Support & Research Australia (BDSRA).

“The bottles would get recycled regardless, of course, but if they’re in our orange bins, BDSRA gets the money, which is always preferred.”

He says that going the extra mile is something that everyone in the wider community is on board with, even the bus companies.

“We actively look at variations to bus routes to accommodate more students. Just this year we extended one route to go to Rhodes to support a new parent who had a student starting. It was easy to extend the route of the bus that went to Preparatory School, and it means that this student can get to School in a sustainable way, avoiding a convoluted public transport journey or driving. We also adjusted another bus route to travel through Earlwood, where it now collects additional students”

As the committee continues to work towards a more sustainable future for Trinity, their initiatives continue to gain momentum and they’re seeing great results.

This article originally appeared in our July 2025 Edition of Trinity News which you can view on our online digital bookshelf.