Two local schools in Brimbank are leading the way towards environmental sustainability, each emerging triumphantly at this year’s ResourceSmart Schools Awards.
The awards were held on June 15, and is Victoria’s largest sustainability celebration for primary and secondary school students, teachers and school volunteers taking remarkable sustainability action.
Ardeer South Primary School in Sunshine West took the title of Emerging School of the Year, a category that celebrates a school that has recently joined ResourceSmart School and has already started to embed sustainability in everything they do.
With a new urban forest, community greenhouse and a ‘Hope Garden,’ Ardeer South Primary School has increased its biodiversity and embarked on a green journey led by the school’s foresters and farmers student leaders and the Gardening Club.
Winner of the Emerging School of the Year in 2022, Overnewton Anglican Community College in Keilor won the 2023 Student Action Team of the Year (primary) award, which celebrates the student teams that best demonstrate environmental leadership.
Over the past year the college has worked to embed sustainability across the school and community. In 2022 it established a Parent Sustainability Group that has been effective in achieving positive sustainable outcomes ranging from energy efficiency to waste reduction. Students have been active organising community clean up days and sharing their waste project with hundreds of students and staff around Victoria at the North West Communities Climate Action Schools Summit.
Sustainability Victoria’s director of regions and community action, Katie Pahlow said the awards celebrate the young people and schools who are leading the way on sustainability, creating real impact for Victorian communities beyond the school gate.
“It’s important to remember that no action is too small and together we can achieve great things for our environment and generations to come,” she said.
Hannah Hammoud
