Sustainability Club

ResourceSmart School Awards

We have been named as a finalist in the ResourceSmart Schools Awards!

The ResourceSmart Schools Awards are Victoria’s largest celebration of sustainability in schools. 53 schools entered the Awards, with 36 finalists from 29 schools – and our school was named a finalist in the CDS Vic Excellence Award (Secondary) and Student Action Team of the Year (Secondary) categories.   This year’s theme, Our Sustainable Community, celebrates collaboration and the inspiration shared among schools and stakeholders within a community we’re part of and committed to supporting. Our school is contributing to Our Sustainable Community by leading such projects as our Carbon Sink and CDS Fundraiser Bins. We have been invited to attend the awards ceremony at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 11th June along with the other finalists.     Since 2008, more than 1,600 schools (including us!) have participated in the program. Together, they have:

•            saved more than $68 million on bills

•            planted 5.1 million trees

•            saved more than 110,000 tonnes CO2e (greenhouse gas emissions) avoided

•            diverted 170,000 cubic metres of waste from landfill

•            saved 1.9 million kilolitres of water

The ResourceSmart Schools Awards are a joyful and affirming celebration of schools and students and their sustainability triumphs. We are proud to be recognised among the schools doing sustainability work that benefits students, the planet and the wider community alike. Read about our story and all finalists here.

Container Deposit Scheme

Our CDS collections are taking off! Our goal at the end of last term was to get to 1,000 containers by our next count, and it looks like we’re well on our way! Woo hoo! As well as increasing our container count, we’d also like to reduce contaminants in our CDS bins. Contaminants are items that have been wrongly placed in bins that have been set aside for a particular purpose, such as putting household waste into your recycling bin, or your green waste bin at home. Here at school, it means putting anything that is NOT an eligible CDS refund container into our blue CDS bins. Our average contamination rate is currently sitting on 26% -- let’s see if we can get it down to under 20% by our next count. We remind everyone, please, do not put general waste into these bins as they are not emptied regularly.

Thank you and well done to everyone who have been putting their empty, eligible cans, bottles and juice boxes in the blue bins you see around the school, and not on the ground or in the ordinary general waste bins. All funds raised from the return of these containers go to Zoos Victoria’s Fighting Extinction Programs, which directly support captive breeding, in-field habitat restoration and monitoring for 27 threatened native species and other wildlife.

Annual Tesselaar Bulb Fundraiser

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Tesselaar Bulb Fundraiser this year. While beautifying your gardens, attracting pollinators and greening up your neighbourhood, you have also helped our club to raise over $120 to continue our sustainability initiatives at school, such as our upcoming Sustainability Week!

Upcoming Events

The SIRC and Sus Club have been hard at work planning our upcoming Sustainability Week at school, scheduled to take place from Monday 01/06/2026 to Friday 05/06/2026. Watch this space for more news and information about the plans we have for what will no doubt be a week of fun, exciting and engaging activities for everyone.

Water Report

Our RSS module of focus this year is ‘Water’. The Sus Club’s activities this year will therefore look into reducing school water consumption, saving money, and promoting sustainable water practices through auditing, infrastructure improvements and curriculum integration. We will be tracking data, repairing leaks, talking about installing efficient technology and educating the community. To this end, we will provide a snapshot of water use in our monthly newsletters:

Victoria’s water storage level is currently down from 69% in March to 66% in April and our school water usage has dropped from around 158,000 litres in March, to 120,000 in April. Great work, everyone – we’re on track to meet our targets if we keep this up!

Join the Club!

Want to make a real difference at school and beyond? Join the Sus Club and turn your ideas into action!

• Plan fun eco-events 🌱

• Lead recycling and waste-reduction projects ♻️

• Raise awareness about climate and community issues 🌍

• Meet friends who care about the planet 🤝

No experience needed — just bring your energy and passion! Together, we can create a greener, cleaner future starting right here at school.

Ready to take action? Come along to SHUB 1 on Thursday at lunchtime to see what we’re all about and sign up! We can’t wait to see you there!