Kew Beach is a platinum certified Eco School. At Kew Beach we are always looking at ways to reduce our impact on the environment through energy conservation, waste reduction, school ground habitats and ecological literacy. At Kew we also have a mandate to contribute to safe and caring school communities.

Energy Conservation
Each classroom from grades 1 to 6 has a set of light monitors, two students responsible for turning off the lights when they are not in use or to assess if lights are actually needed. Members of the Kew Beach Eco Club have made posters to increase awareness of energy conservation and posted them around the school. Many teachers draw their curtains at the end of the day in order to keep warm air inside the school during winter and to avoid heating up the classrooms on hot days. Kew Beach's heating system is on a timer run by the head caretaker so our energy use if further reduced.

Waste Reduction
At Kew Beach we operate a "pack it in, pack it out" lunch programme: all garbage, recycling and organic waste must be taken home. The advantage is two-fold: organic waste can be put into green bins at home (not yet available at Kew) and parents have a sense of how much their child eats and how much waste is produced from their lunch. Reusable containers and bottles are encouraged and used by the majority of students in the lunch programme. The Kew Beach Eco Club has been instrumental in raising awareness of lunchtime waste reduction: after conducting a waste audit of the school's garbage after a day, they found that most of the garbage thrown away was food waste.

School ground Habitats
Over the past several years, Kew has been working on greening our school grounds. We have put in an outdoor classroom - a circle of rocks surrounded by trees - that is used by classes in a variety of curriculum areas. Kew has also had several trees planted over the years for purposes such as shade and to alleviate soil erosion.