Click to read more about Cooper Houses' Green Zealand adventures

As part of our Sustainability topic, we created our own sustainable civilisations. We had to think about food and water sources, energy sources, currency, laws, land use and how we will function as a society. Alongside a 3D model of our island, we wrote a report detailing out these concepts. Below is one of our reports.

Green Zealand

Green Zealand is an earthy, grass covered, mountainous island where we grow fruits, vegetables, and trees. We are 100% sustainable. We make sure our people are happy, but insist that they contribute to our society by helping out with all jobs. Our population is small - only six in total. We have rules in place to make sure that we stay 100% sustainable.

Forty percent of our land is used to plant pine and cotton trees. Vegetables and fruit crops cover 15% of our land. The farm uses 15% where we have chickens that produce both eggs and meat. Our last 30% is used for recreation and housing.

Our main energy source is wind turbines. Wind turbines work on a simple principle - the turbines use wind to make electricity. Wind turns the propeller-like blades of a turbine around a rotor, which spins a generator, which creates electricity. We have managed to create a sustainable battery using zinc, that recharges itself with the help of the sun.

Every house is made out of pine wood, insulated with hay that keeps us warm all year round. For every tree we cut down for housing, we plant another 3 trees.

Our climate and fertile soil allows for an abundance of fruit and veges. In summer we grow beans, capsicium, carrots, pumpkin, tomatoes, and cucumber. In winter we grow broad beans, beetroot, broccoli, cabbage, wheat, and peas. In autumn we grow beans, pansies, sweet peas, brussel sprouts, carrots,and lettuce. In spring we grow beans, beetroot, broccoli, carrots, celery, lettuce, peas, potatoes, spinach, and spring onions. We fish all year round, and collect eggs and chicken from our chickens.

Our laws are that you can not catch more than 4 fish per person per day. After you have built your shelter, you can’t harvest more than 2 trees per person each year. You have to do a minimum of one job to help the community each day. For every one tree we cut down we plant 3 more.

We export our fruit, vegetables, chicken meat and eggs to other islands to make money. Money can be spent on clothes made from cotton, and toys made from wood.

Our water tank collects rainwater for us all to use. When we run out of water, we fill it up with our lake water and let it sit for a couple of days so all of the dirt goes to the bottom of the tank. A couple of days later we will scoop all of the dirt out from the water tank. This provides clean water for our people. We have 2 water tanks so when one is being filtered the other one can be used.

Our Island is sustainable because we use all reusable things and our resources are all renewable. There is no plastic on our Island and we sleep at night knowing that our carbon footprint is minimal.

By Colbie and Awhi - Room 4

Cooper Team