Schools working together is inspiring, as a group of 30 teachers, administrators and students discovered on May 19. Mosman Public School was host for the second meeting of the Zero Emissions Schools Network — Mosman. It was a lively and productive discussion.
Year 5/6 teacher, Kate Leary, and four members of Mosman Public School’s Sustainability Club, presented on their sustainability initiatives. These include rooftop solar and vegetable beds. Then students from the other schools working together gave updates on their own initiatives.
The range of ideas is inspiring: native bee hives, waste-free lunch days, vertical wall gardens, and auditing electricity usage with the Climate Clever app are just a few of the actions students are taking to reduce emissions.
Loani Tierney (Mosman Council) & Kate Leary(Mosman Public School) gave a presentation on worm farms and composting.
Beauty Point Public School will host the third meeting on August 4.
The Zero Emissions Schools Network – Mosman involves all eight schools in Mosman local government area, plus Cammeray Public School in North Sydney. If you are interested in creating a sustainability group at your school or a Zero Emissions Network in your LGA, the Zero Emissions Solutions Schools page has a great range of resources to get you started. Jenni is also available for one-on-one consultations and you can contact her via schools@zeroemissionssolutions.org.au.
School Principals gathered for the first meeting of Zero Emissions Schools Network – Mosman on February 17. Eight schools from Mosman LGA were represented, plus Cammaray Public School (North Sydney LGA).
Mosman Mayor Carolyn Corrigan welcomed the schools, along with Jenni Hagland, team leader for Zero Emissions Schools, Ursula Hogben, co-founder of Zero Emissions Solutions, and the Mosman Council Sustainability team.
Jenni says:
The energy and enthusiasm was great to see. It was so interesting to hear what every school is doing and find out their motivation for joining the group.
The next meeting of Zero Emissions Schools Network – Mosman LGA will be hosted at Mosman Public School on 19th May. I hope to get a speaker in to talk to the group about school composting and worm farms. This ties in with Mosman Public School because they have just got their gardens going and are working on composting at the moment.
Jenni is launching a regular email newsletter to the group, with news of grants, events and other relevant information. Jenni, Ursula and our team have built an information hub with information, case studies, how-to guides and resources at Zero Emissions Schools. Look out for how-to guides on reducing waste and installing solar.
If you are interested in creating a sustainability group at your school the Zero Emissions Solutions Schools page has a great range of resources to get you started. Jenni is available for one-on-one consultations and you can contact her via schools@zeroemissionssolutions.org.au. Councils can also contact us if Council is interested in a Zero Emissions Schools Network for your LGA.
This Wednesday 17 February representatives from every school in Mosman come together to attend the inaugural meeting of the Zero Emission Schools Network – Mosman. The aim: to take action on sustainability. The Mayor of Mosman, Councillor Carolyn Corrigan, will launch this exciting initiative to help schools establish sustainability programs.
The aim, says Zero Emissions Schools leader, Jenni Hagland, is to motivate each other by sharing ideas and promoting best practice. Most importantly, the initiative aims to develop more schools sustainability action for communities and bring about broader awareness regarding the climate crisis.
Mayor Corrigan – Mosman Council Mayor, Loani Tierney – Environment Education Officer, Jenni – Zero Emissions Schools Network leader, and Ursula Hogben – Zero Emissions Solutions Co-Founder, will be at the launch, along with all of the Mosman LGA schools.
Mosman Public School students announcing the installation of solar panels on their roof.
Find out more
Watch this space to hear how the meeting goes and how the plans unfold. Meanwhile, you might want to visit Australian Parents for Climate Action. This national group campaigns for funding for solar on schools and childcare centres.
The pictures tell the story. In just a year, Zero Emissions Solutions has held more than 20 Solar My House parties and webinars, two Electric Vehicle webinars and a Solar Open House day. Our volunteers have attended Mosman markets, delivered flyers and hosted parties. After lengthy research, we have partnered with two businesses with renewable energy at their core.
We’ve built a core group of volunteers and found friends and colleagues across local government and not-for-profit organisations. We’ve won two grants and helped people put more than $250,000 worth of solar panels on houses in the Northern region of Sydney. This is roughly equivalent to planting nearly 5000 trees, or saving of nearly 2 million kilometres of fossil-fuelled driving!
All that remains is to say thank you to all the brilliant people and organisations who have walked alongside, including:
Our Advisory Team and all the individuals and businesses who have said ‘yes, sure, what can I do?’ And last but definitely not least, a heartfelt thanks to all our amazing volunteers, many of whom star in the video.
We are a not-for-profit association of volunteers working across the Northern Beaches and the North Shore. We operate as part of the national Beyond Zero Emissions network. Our focus is on practical projects that will accelerate our transition to net zero emissions.
We know we need to do things differently to reduce our emissions. We know we need to change. But how? Kid Power, that’s how.
“It’s really difficult to talk to adults and ask them to change,” says Jenni Hagland, leader of Zero Emissions Schools program. “I had this epiphany one day at the bakery. There was an adult in line with his bread bag. I said, ‘Oh, that’s amazing,’ and he said, ‘My kids make me do it, I don’t want to.’
“It made me think: get the kids doing it, then their parents will change. It’s so much easier to get adults to change when their kids are involved.”
Jenni Hagland is new to ZESN but no newcomer to change-making. She has worked on sustainability for more than a decade. In 2006 she began working for the Carbon Disclosure Project, a global NGO based in London, followed up by work for the CDP in Hong Kong. She moved to Sydney in 2016 and started the Mosman Public School Sustainability Club in 2018.
Small beginnings
The club started small, fundraising for recycling bins, having ‘nude lunch’ challenges, turning off lights and installing LEDs. Then this April, after a year of planning and fund-raising, the school installed 50kW of solar panels on its roof. The system will provide 25% of the school’s electricity needs, saving $8,000 a year.
New to Zero Emissions Solutions
Now Jenni has joined Zero Emissions Solutions to work on sustainability in schools across the region, starting with a new range of resources available from the Zero Emissions website. There are practical, step-by-step guides to forming a school sustainability team, revving up your recycling and active transport, and making sustainability a part of the curriculum. Plus there are inspiring case studies from Mosman Public School and Manly Selective showing how young people are making change happen, and benefitting their schools and communities at the same time. Kid Power rocks!
“People overlook the impact kids have on their parents. You’re changing their behaviour at an early age, making them aware of the problem. These little people are going to turn into adults. I think it’s really important to make that not new or weird. It’s a part of their behaviour, and that will rub off at home, their parents will change, small business will respond to that, community will change.”
If you are inspired by these stories, if you want to help your school save money and carbon emissions, please get in touch.
