Kardinia International College wins at ResourceSmart Schools Awards

KARDINIA International College in Geelong has won the Container Deposit Scheme Vic (CDS Vic) Excellence Award (Secondary) at this year’s ResourceSmart Schools Awards.

Earthcore, the school’s student-led sustainability committee, led efforts to reduce waste at the school and raise funds to reinvest in sustainability projects.

Students proved their leadership skills through their demonstrations of initiatives.

Collaborating with Recycle4Change, The Purple Bin Project was created, raising funds up to $1,500 for social and community causes, as well as money for their own sustainability projects.

The Purple Bin Project ensures proper recycling of eligible drink containers across both campuses while educational campaigns and competitions such as Bin It to Win It and Sort Smart, Win Big engage students to overcome challenges such as contamination.

The team conducts annual waste audits and promotes proper sorting for recycling through a five-stream waste system.

Projects including planting 600 native trees and maintaining the educational Bush Tucker and Indigenous Garden and Senior School Vegetable Garden also improved the school’s biodiversity.

Judging panelists were impressed by the students’ proactive approach to collaborate and innovate.

“From speaking at assemblies and designing engaging activities to developing an app that collates competition data, these are all impressive demonstrations of student-led initiatives,” the judges said.

“It’s clear that Earthcore has empowered students to take charge, inspiring both their peers and the broader community – well done!”

Sustainability Victoria chief executive officer Matt Genever commended Kardinia International College school for its passion and energy in reducing waste.

“Kardinia International College has shown outstanding leadership and is a tremendous role model that will inspire other schools to take action.

“Congratulations on achieving such positive impacts for the school and protecting our environment.”

There were 31 schools vying for an award in Victoria’s largest celebration for primary and secondary school students, teachers and school volunteers taking sustainability action, with 10 schools bringing home awards.

This year, Sustainability Victoria marked 16 years of the ResourceSmart Schools Awards with the theme “Working Together”.

ResourceSmart Schools is a free Victorian government program delivering sustainability education to help Victorian schools minimise waste, save energy and water, promote biodiversity and act on climate change.

For more information, head to sustainability.vic.gov.au/our-work/resourcesmart-schools