Sustainability _______________________________Page

from Virtus SJC Yearbook 2013

Roll Call _____________________________Pages

“Myself and 12 other students were selected to travel to Kardinia International College to participate in a “Pedal Power Challenge”. The challenge consisted of St Joseph’s vs. Kardinia to see who could generate the biggest amount of clean energy by powering a series of bikes on wind trainers. Of course Joey’s won! ” - Tyrone Butterworth, Year 11

The water trough that is to be converted to a garden bed

With the inception of the role of a Sustainability Coordinator and a student Sustainability Leadership group, it has been an exciting and rewarding year working together to initiate and implement various Sustainability endeavours, with the overall aim of reducing waste at the College. Some of the initiatives implemented this year have included: multiple “Cut the Wrap” days complemented by the “I Like Waste Free Lunches” rap song, fully commingled recycling and composting in Year 7 & 8 areas, food technology, canteens and staffroom, recycling ‘soft plastics’, through the REDCycle program, recycling poster competition, basketball ring posters inside bin lids, battery & mobile phone recycling, transformation of water trough station, paper re-use trays in classrooms, double-sided printing and Sustainability signature on staff emails. In addition, with Core and Energy modules of the ResourceSmart AuSSI Vic program completed in previous years, this year we undertook the Waste module under the guidance of Anthony Mangelsdorf (Project Manager, Barwon South West ResourceSmart Schools, Barwon Regional Waste Management Group).

Kelly Jenkins - Sustainability Coordinator PEDAL POWER CHALLENGE,

On the 15 March, thirteen St Joseph’s boys went down to Kardinia International College, to be in the exciting Pedal Power Challenge. The day was to promote cleaner energy sources and to see how much power we could produce with push bikes. We basically had a relay on these bikes and see which school could produce the highest amount of power. Lots of schools went and we all learnt something new and fantastic on that day. At the Pedal Power Challenge all of the J Joey’s boys had a blast, and are looking for a chance to do something like it again soon.

Benjamin Cazaly - Year 11 SUSTAINABILITY LEADERS WORKSHOP

On Thursday 2 May, Year 11 Sustainability Leaders Benjamin Cazaly, Jack Callahan and Alexander Lukacz participated in the Sustainability Leader’s Conference at Clonard College. Facilitated by staff from CERES, Environmental Park, Brunswick, the conference proved to be an invaluable experience, providing insight and inspiration for our students regarding their role as Sustainability Leaders. This day marked the inception of ideas such as the “Cut the Wrap” rap and basketball ring posters for the large wheelie bins.

NATIONAL TREE PLANTING DAY

July 26 was a day Environmentalists would rejoice! When the Year 7 leaders and some of the Clonard, Sacred Hart and St Joseph’s VCE Environmental Science students, planted trees along the Bellarine Rail Trail. We met Lyn Wilcock from Greening Australia, who showed us how to plant trees. By the end of the day, the combined group ended up planting a massive 400 shrubs and trees. It was a good experience and I would love to do it again.

Gabriel Hickey - Year 7 SUSTAINABILITY SUMMIT

On 15 - 16 August, several students from the Sustainability Leadership Group at SJC went to a Summit meeting, hosted by the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, the City of Greater Geelong and the Barwon Regional Waste Management Group. There were dozens of students from other schools who went. Over the course of the two days we were informed in depth about the more acute and less publicized effects of certain environmental disregards, particularly climate change. One fact that resounded in our minds was that the permafrost glaciers, that contain large amounts of methane gas, are close to melting. When we reach this point there will be nothing we can do to stop global warming because the methane will absorb the heat and keep getting hotter. With such heavy thoughts, it can become easy to lose sight of how much change one person can really make. The main point the organisation got across to us was that it is our generation that has the responsibility. Climate change has never been more threatening, but it has also never been so beatable. It is up to us!

Dylan McCabe - Year 9 START THE SWITCH

A three month program called “Start the Switch”, is designed to take students on a journey of discovery, understanding, inspiration and action. Together with mentor Tegan Whitten (AYCC), the sustainability group undertook the project of ‘decommissioning’ and transforming a water trough station near the quadrangle, into a dual purpose sustainable living garden bed and drinking station. Furthermore, Jordan Partington, Year 9, was successful in his application for one of two Sustainable Garden Grants (to the value of $500) which was sponsored by Barwon Water. The grant was utilised to partially fund the “Start the Switch” project.