As part of their ELEMENT Project Year 8 students visited the Living Well Centre in Sancreed on Wednesday. The Centre, which has been developed on a greenfield site since 2004, allows students to see sustainability in action and hear all about it from residents there who have made significant changes to reduce the impacts of their lives on the environment for future generations. Many thanks  go to Rachel and Maggie from the site, who both provided the groups with passionate insights into why and how they have chosen more sustainable lifestyles. Students heard about the permaculture approach taken at the site,  which involves doing nothing to the for a year land while watching the influence of nature. They have followed this by planting over 4,000 trees  for orchard and coppice production, as well as areas for growing vegetables, fruits, flowers, a green compost area and bio-beds to purify waste water. Students also found out about the different types of sustainable building styles implemented there, including a straw-bale roundhouse, huts made from locally salvaged materials and a ‘flat-pack’  super-insulated eco-house.

Report by Ms Evans