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Dandenong High School
School Environmental Management Plan
2015-2019
This School Environmental Management Plan (SEMP) outlines Dandenong High School’s
commitment to sustainability. It highlights our achievements to date and a plan for what we would like
to achieve in the future.
This SEMP has been developed as part of ResourceSmart Schools, which we joined in 2013
.
Resource Smart Schools is a Victorian Government initiative that will help our school benefit from
embedding sustainability in everything we do. Our school will take action to minimise waste, save
energy and water, promote biodiversity and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.
Dandenong High School has already embraced and integrated sustainability into the school
curriculum and recognised that the management of this requires co-ordination through the role of the
Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies Co-ordinator. This has allowed the school to implement and
co-ordinate sustainabiltity issues particularly through the creation of a voluntary student environment
group known as DHERT - Dandenong High Environmental Response Team. This team and the Co-
ordinator have implemented projects such as whole school recycling, tree planting and educational
initiatives. The Co-ordinator and these activities as well as the new sustainable school buildings have
already put us in a good position to work through the five ResourceSmart AuSSVic modules and on
our way to achieve 5 Star accreditation as a Victorian and national sustainable school.
To progress through the 5 stars, the school completes the five modules of: Core; Biodiversity; Energy;
Waste; and Water. Through completing these modules and aiming to attain 5 star accreditation we not
only continue our commitment to sustainability but show leadership as a school in this area. The first
module - the Core module - is about ‘Building the Foundations of a Sustainable School’ and is an
important step for the development of Education for Sustainability (EfS) and sustainability practice in
schools. The module helps with the planning and strategic process for a whole school approach to
sustainability. It is designed to be an integral part of the school's strategic planning process in order to
set this strategic environmental management plan (SEMP) adopted by the school.
Date of next review: 2019