Vision, goals and guiding principles

Vision

The AuSSI vision is:

For all Australian schools and their communities to be sustainable.

AuSSI aims to achieve the following goals:

Learning and teaching for sustainability as an integral component of school curricula.
Schools actively engaging in a continuous cycle of planning, implementing and reviewing their approach to sustainability as part of their everyday operations.
Schools using natural resources, including energy, water, waste and biodiversity, in more sustainable ways.
Schools and school authorities reporting on changes towards sustainability.
Schools working towards sustainability in partnership with their local communities.
Schools and school authorities implementing polices and practices that support effective education for sustainability.
Schools and communities developing values that support a sustainability ethos.
Young people sharing ownership of sustainability initiatives and decision making.
Individuals supported to make effective sustainability decisions and choices.

AuSSI is based on the following guiding principles:

Seeking to develop a school culture committed to the principles of sustainable development.
Seeking to go beyond awareness raising to action learning and integration with school curricula.
Encouraging the involvement of the whole school.
Encouraging the involvement of a school's local community and a shift in the broader community towards more sustainable practices and processes.
Seeking to develop relationships with other areas that impact on the organisation and management of a school.
Being founded on a sound basis of theory and practice in schools and school systems, quality teaching and learning, and environmental education for sustainability.
Encouraging schools to achieve measurable social, environmental, educational and financial outcomes.

Students look at sustainable building design.

The Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative (AuSSI) seeks to support schools and their communities to become sustainable