A Green School in Kalyan: How Sacred Heart Lives Sustainability Every Day

When parents in Kalyan look for a school, many now ask a new question: does the school practise what it teaches about the environment? At Sacred Heart School, Kalyan, the answer is written into our campus. For the past nine years we have been an active participant in the Green Schools Programme (GSP) Audit conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) — and we are proud to be the first school in Thane District to take part in this prestigious environmental initiative.

A Green School Recognised Year After Year

Our commitment to sustainability has been recognised with the Green School Award eight times and the Sterling School Award once. One of our teachers has also been honoured as a GSP Ambassador twice for outstanding work in environmental education. Along the way, the school has also received the Economic Times Cleanest School Award and a 5-Star Swachh School rating in Thane District.

Living the Six Pillars of the Green Schools Programme

Spread across an 11-acre green campus with more than 2,500 students from Nursery to Grade 12, we live the six pillars of GSP — Air, Energy, Food, Land, Water and Waste — through everyday actions, not one-off events. Here is what that looks like on our campus.

Energy — A 100% Solar-Powered Campus

Sacred Heart is a 100% solar-powered campus with a 210 kW solar plant, significantly reducing our carbon footprint and energy costs. Students grow up in classrooms powered by the sun — a daily, visible lesson in clean energy.

Water — Every Drop Counts

Our campus has 35 active Rainwater Harvesting (RWH) pits that recharge groundwater, making the school water-resilient and protecting the rich biodiversity of trees, animals and birds that make our surroundings special.

Waste — A Zero-Waste Approach

We follow a complete waste management system. Wet waste is converted into compost and used for our campus plants. Dry waste is segregated and sent to the local kabadiwala for recycling. Every year we also conduct an E-waste collection drive and send the collected waste to an MPCB-authorised company for safe recycling. Partnerships with organisations such as Goonj, Respun and E-Incarnation Recycling help channel textile waste and e-waste back into the circular economy instead of the landfill.

Land & Food — Learning from Soil

Our students experience both worlds of farming: traditional farming and modern, soil-less hydroponics, right inside the school in our dedicated Hydroponics Lab. It connects children to where their food comes from — and to the science of growing it sustainably.

Air & Land — A Campus Full of Life

Green spaces are part of the school day. The Sir C. C. Anthony Biodiversity Park, named after our founder chairman, and the Sacred Heart Butterfly Garden give students a living laboratory to observe trees, birds and insects up close, and a reason to protect them.

Why a Green Campus Matters for Your Child

Children learn most from what they see adults do every day. On a campus where the lights run on solar power, rainwater is saved and waste is sorted at the source, environmental responsibility stops being a chapter in a textbook and becomes a habit. Our students and staff work together to conserve water, care for the campus and protect its biodiversity — small, meaningful actions that we hope will shape environmentally conscious citizens who help build a greener, more sustainable future.

At Sacred Heart School, sustainability is more than an audit or an award. It is a shared responsibility that shapes the way we learn, live and care for our surroundings. Read more about sustainability at Sacred Heart.