sustainability At OLD ORCHARD
Working Team:
Enza Orsini
Tracey Ding
Claire Mitchell
Fiona Kirby
A Message from the sustainability captains:
Our journey into Waste Reduction
This year we started our journey into waste reduction by introducing Nude Food. We made a video to promote Nude Food, and sent out letters notifying parents about our school being a Nude Food school. We also sent out examples of what Nude Food looks like. We have a Nude Food display in our corridors. In term 3, we started a Nude Food competition across Senior and Junior school. Our award was a sustainable plant, with a certificate of appreciation.
In term 3, we had visitors from CERES, who helped us do an audit of our school waste. We learnt that we have to wash our waste, for it to be recycled. We were happy to discover that we didn’t have a lot of rubbish because of the introduction of Nude Food at the beginning of the year, also because the canteen was shut. We did another audit at the end of term 3 and found that we had reduced the waste even more.
In term 4, our sustainability teacher, Tracey, has been posting pictures of Nude Food lunch boxes, to give ideas and educate our parents in the community.
The Sustainability Captains are really pleased to have reduced our waste this year. We hope to talk to the canteen next year, about reducing the amount of rubbish in the canteen. Old Orchard is committed to making a difference to our community. We care about our world, so we want to be sustainable. We know that it can, and it will start with us.
By Sustainability Captain Mahyu McDonald
Our School is Becoming ResourceSmart
This year our school has taken action to become more environmentally sustainable through a Victorian Government initiative called ResourceSmart Schools.
ResourceSmart Schools is a program that helps our school embed sustainability in everything we do. We are aiming to reduce our resource use (like electricity, waste and water) and support indigenous plants and animals. This will also help us to save money. We also want to involve students, families and other members of our school and local community.
We are working with Kate Checkley from CERES Environment Park on the actions of the Core Module.
We are aiming to create a strong foundation for our sustainability program, continue to build on our sustainability achievements, monitor our resource use by using a free website called ResourceSmart Online, improve our gardens, improve our energy/waste/water systems, get our community involved, participate in exciting events, supporting our students, including sustainability in our curriculum.
We can’t wait to share our achievements with you, see our gardens grow, reduce our school’s impact, help make the Earth a better place for all and contribute to a sustainable future for all.
Read more about ResourceSmart Schools at https://secure.resourcesmartschools.vic.gov.au