Sustainability This year we made significant inroads to our commitment toward renewable energy, with the installation of an 88kW DC Solar system (comprising of 320 panels) at the Edmund Rice Campus. Installed by Old Collegian, Kurt Pamvouxoglou from City to Surf Solar. In addition, we installed our Future Spark electromagnetic bikes in the staffroom, for students and staff to use in breaks and students have already implemented several competitions to see who can generate the most power. Many of our student endeavours centred around biodiversity and planting techniques, as we commenced the ResourceSmart Biodiversity module. Activities and initiatives undertaken this year included: a fifth sustainable drinking station, wetland development and food miles analysis at the Farmer’s Place, recycling workshops at local primary schools,Year 7 stewardship excursions with Great Ocean Road Coast Committee, planting workshops, a Mother’s Day plant stall (raising $560 for the homeless), making sleep mats for the homeless, planting native species beside Carey Oval, recycling excursions and pre-loved bicycle collection. Students were also encouraged to participate in various national events including: National Ride to School Day, Clean Up Australia Day, National Tree Planting Day, Cool School’s Enviroweek and National Recycling Week. UPSTART CHALLENGE - THE “TALKING BIN” William Baum, Lachlan Demasi, Daniel Warfe and Sascha Wheelwright, have been instrumental this year in the design and construction of a “Talking Recycling Bin”. William, Lachlan and Sascha entered the idea into the Upstart Challenge competition, making it to the top 12 ideas (from 89) and winning the “Best Video Entry”. After progressing to the top six, William, Daniel and Sascha delivered a fabulous pitch and charmed the crowd with their wit, humour and well-articulated speech at the Pitching Showdown, receiving acknowledgement from the judges for thorough research. CLEAN UP AUSTRALIA DAY This year we achieved the highest turnout of SJC families supporting the Friends of Waurn Ponds Creek and an enormous volume of rubbish was removed from the embankments of the Creek. Year 10 student Sean Bindokas continued the collection for three hours without a break. A wonderful example of GRIT! PLANT PROPAGATION, KOKEDAMA &TERRARIUMS As part of the ResourceSmart Biodiversity module this year, various workshops were offered to students to create interest and broaden their understanding of biodiversity. Thomas Caligari developed a new initiative called Chop’n’Swap, where students brought in succulent cuttings to swap and propagate ready for the Mother’s Day Stall. Kokedama and terrarium workshops in Term 3 were also poplular and a chance for boys to get their hands dirty building their creations. Subsequent workshops have been conducted for students and staff as part of the Cool Australia’s Enviroweek activities. RESOURCESMART EDUCATION AWARDS On 16 October, representatives from our Sustainability team
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attended the ResourceSmart Education Awards hosted by the vibrant ABC television personality, Costa Georgiadis. This year we were acknowledged as a winner of Secondary School Teacher of the Year. - Kelly Jenkins, Sustainability Coordinator THE FARMER’S PLACE, FRESHWATER CREEK On March 1, 40 students from Year 9 Planet Green and Sustainability leaders travelled to The Farmer’s Place. There they participated in turning a dam into wetlands for native animals and joined the 100km food activity, where they discussed the “food miles” surrounding different pizza toppings. Students finished the day by making tasty wood oven pizzas using local toppings. It was a great day, very enjoyable and a lot of ideas were taken from The Farmer’s Place. - Tom Caligari & Jack Condon, Year 8 RECYCLING WORKSHOPS On 16 May, Sustainability Leaders travelled to Geelong College to exchange projects and ideas about waste reduction, recycling and biodiversity. We spoke to students about how we reduce and recycle our waste at St Joseph’s. We then headed over to the Year 4 Enviro-Centre. Exploring the Centre was an amazing experience and would definitely change St Joseph’s for the better if a few of their ideas were implemented. Ideas included: an indigenous garden, frog pond and “Pot to Plate”, where one day a week Year 4s cook a meal using the ingredients from their garden. - Xavier Korolis, Year 7 Sustainability Leaders visited Holy Spirit Primary School to conduct a Recycling workshop with Grade 3 - 6 students, to support them with the implementation of REDcycling at their school. The excursion was great! We got into pairs to teach about sustainability. My partner and I were placed with the Grade 6s. We taught them about REDcycling and the different bins. We also got them to participate in some recycling activities and some fun games. Personally I really liked the excursion and would definitely like to go again! - Jack Macpherson, Year 7 STEWARDSHIP EXCURSION TO TORQUAY On 29 April, 7D boys went to Fisherman’s Beach as our prize for “Cut the Wrap” in first term. We went to meet Peter Crowcroft, to tell us about sand dunes and other coastal features. We also walked down the beach picking up rubbish, categorizing it and we created a tally for the different groups. We learned a lot about the environment and how humans impact it, as well as the importance sustainability plays on preserving our natural ecosystems. - Matthew Sorgiovanni, Year 7 NATIONAL TREE PLANTING DAY On 30 July, 17 families from St Joseph’s participated in National Tree Planting Day. It was a windy morning which made planting a challenge. The Friends of Waurn Ponds Creek supplied the tools and all plants planted were native to the creek area.The goal was to have planted 2500 plants on the Winter Street site near the Waurn Ponds Creek Bridge. - Jack Sager, Year 8 y Clean Up Australia Da
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