KEY POINTS:
Balmoral School in Mt Eden generated just more than five tonnes of CO2 emissions in a single month, according to an online calculator - about the same quantity as running two average cars for a year.
Schools' carbon footprints could increasingly come under the spotlight as sustainability - including environmental awareness - is to be strengthened through the updated curriculum currently being introduced to classrooms.
Balmoral School principal Malcolm Milner filled out the CarboNZero school calculator last week for the Herald.
Mr Milner used energy, waste and school transport data for the month of November last year to calculate the school's CO2 emissions.
The results showed 80 per cent of emissions came from energy use - during the period that the school was heating its pool - and 20 per cent came from waste.
As the school did not organise any trips that month, it recorded no carbon emissions from transport.
The calculator found the Mt Eden school generated 6.48kg of emissions per student for the month.
Mr Milner said while the results were interesting, the calculator was too simplistic. It did not count staff and students commuting to and from school and did not give credits for recycling paper.
CarboNZero project manager Professor Ann Smith said the school calculator had not been updated since it was created in 2003 and more parameters would be added if it was upgraded.
She said it had been used by only a handful of schools in the past five years as it did not fit into the old curriculum. But with the new focus, she hoped numbers would rise to match the huge surge in popularity for the website's other calculators.
Meanwhile, schools could put their information into the more up-to-date household calculator and call the CarboNZero helpline, if needed, she said.
Balmoral School, a 750-pupil full primary, recycled about 600kg of paper a month and was aiming to reduce the amount.
Mr Milner admitted inadvertently putting paper in his office rubbish bin sometimes, but said staff often took it out again and placed it in the office recycling bin.
He said the school's seven walking school buses were an attempt to become more environmentally friendly.
"I think the major issue for children these days is global warming and the environment," said Mr Milner.
"If schools are going to capture them in their learning, then it is going to have to be around those issues."
The Ministry of Education's group manager of curriculum, teaching and learning design, Mary Chamberlain, said sustainability was identified as an important theme for students in a review of the curriculum in 2003.
She said the new curriculum signals the importance of helping students think about the long-term impact of social, environmental and economic practices.
"The key challenge is to consider these together rather than in isolation, as the links between them are critical," she said.
"It's not just about recycling or worm-farm projects in schools - but stretching kids to think critically about the implications of common practices in the wider world. If they are throwing out rubbish, for example, they should know where it goes and the impact it has now and is likely to have in the future."
Lincoln University professor of nature conservation Ian Spellerberg said schools had the power to lead the community and promote change on environmental issues.
He cited Lincoln High School as a key driver behind Lincoln Environtown, which is the local community's environmental management policy.
"This is where a school has made a huge difference, in what the young people take home to their homes but also ... in terms of the local community."
