It’s been back to school for students, and back to school for Zero Emissions Solutions at our final network meeting for the year, hosted by Sacred Heart Mosman.

Staff and students from Sacred Heart Mosman gave an inspiring presentation on their sustainability journey. We love how the whole school community is involved — including staff, students, parents and the broader community. And we love how sustainability measures are integrated into the curriculum and into everyday life.

Just a few highlights:

waste reduction recyclingBINS bins bins

All the colours, and with great signage. Congratulations to the student representative council (SRC) for running Waste-free Wednesdays and reducing waste by 75% –from 8 red bins down to just 2 a day.

Gardening sustainable schoolsThe Sustainable Garden

A learning centre for all grades, from watching how things grow in K-1 to, in years 5 and 6, an integrated STEM project on garden bed design, including researching plants, mulch and irrigation options. Everyone is a gardener!

 

Students learning about gardeningIndigenous Perspectives

Regular visits from David Harrington of Stones and Bones, a learning partner who combines indigenous perspectives and sustainable gardening skills. Bushcraft, story telling, science and first nations wisdom and lots of fun!

 

A message from Jenni and the schools team:

This was the last meeting of the year. Reflecting back on our first meeting in Feb, it is amazing to think how each and every school was at a different place on their sustainable journey when we started.  With some schools, progress was well under way and we want to thank you for sharing your initiatives with us over the past year.  For some other schools just starting this journey, we just want to say how inspired we are by your efforts and enthusiasm.  We know all too well what a huge challenge it is to address sustainability at the school when you are working at it alone on top of your normal role.  You are all doing an amazing job and we thank you for attending these meetings and sharing in your journey and progress.

Together we can do it better and make it easier.

The first meeting of 2022 will be the 16th March hosted by Mosman Prep, hopefully in person! In the mean time, read more about our schools program here.