The View

Sustainability at the College

Karen Giudici

Groovy Gardeners

At our Groovy Gardeners session last week, while our Year 10 students were off campus, we still had many willing green thumbs continuing to help with planting. Flower seedlings, statice and spring onions were all planted in the garden beds and we now anxiously wait to seem them grow.

Sustainability Development Goals

Last week, a small group of Year 9 students, along with Environment Leader Lottie Groves, attended The Sustainability Centre at Mount Nelson to participate with other school in an interactive, thought provoking and fun game to understand the role of the United Nations Sustainability Developmental Goals 2030 (UNSDG’s 2030). This game has been played by many students all over the world.

The game allowed participants to make decisions and trade money and time to achieve their chosen goals, those being a focus on money, society and/or environment.

 

Some comments after the game were:

‘it’s so easy to get swept up in the desire to make money’, 

‘we had to work super hard to support the environment’, 

‘we didn’t have enough time or money’.

 

For the last half hour the girls attended to a questionnaire about the Centre itself and were impressed to learn that the Centre was upcycled from a demolished building in the city, it is passive solar and collects it’s own water.

 

The Global Goals and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development seek to end poverty and hunger, realise the human rights of all, achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, and ensure the lasting protection of the planet and its natural resources. 

The 17 Sustainability Developmental Goals are:

  1. No poverty
  2. Zero hunger
  3. Good health and well-being
  4. Quality Education
  5. Gender equality
  6. Clean water and sanitation
  7. Affordable and clean energy
  8. Decent work and economic growth
  9. Industry, innovation and infrastructure
  10. Reduced inequalities
  11. Sustainable cities and economies
  12. Responsible consumption and production
  13. Climate action
  14. Life below water
  15. Life on land
  16. Peace, justice and strong institutions
  17. Partnership for the goals

At Mount Carmel, we are working toward having more appropriate waste systems in the College and aim to be separating our waste into paper/cardboard, food/organic, recycling and land fill before the term is finished. To be a successful venture, we need all our students and staff on board.