The eminent threat of climate change is a worldwide concern. High levels of greenhouse gases are warming the planet and carbon dioxide (CO2) generated has a devastating impact on wildlife and habitats. The VIS community is committed to creating awareness of the need for a sustainable environment and to leaving a green print on our planet. In addition to supporting our students understand the important aspects of sustainability on a global scale and encouraging them to become the future ambassadors of the planet, the School is also looking to reduce its own carbon footprint during its day-to-day operations.
With support from the three organisations accrediting our school (Eco Schools, Global Schools and Umweltzeichen), VIS continues assessing the building and the daily operations to optimize the internal processes towards becoming environmentally friendly. Since 2017 when VIS was nominated the first Eco School International in Austria, the School has already made notable progress in using less paper, reducing the energy usage, reducing water consumption, increasing the number of trees, reducing oversee travel. The education for sustainability is a major driver for all business procurement decisions in the recent years, and every decision of the School is now embedded in a continuous improvement process for the environment, social welfare and low transportation cost.
Since 1 January 2020, the Vienna International School upgraded the electricity from 100% hydro power (energy from water movement) to 100% renewable energy without any CO2 emission (green electricity), also called Ökostrom. From now on, all classroom lights, elevators and beamers have zero CO2 emissions. By eliminating these carbon emissions the school hopes to balance out the pollution, therefore reduce the carbon footprint.
We will continue to work on finding and implementing techniques to reduce the CO2 emissions in our School and to engage our students and the school community in integrating the concept of sustainability into the school culture and every day school life.