Getting Involved in Sustainability

I am a student in year twelve at Canberra Grammar School. I am the founder of the Sustainability Committee at Grammar and am actively involved in promoting a more sustainable learning environment within the school as well as creating a model for the wider Canberra community.

Prior to moving to Canberra three years ago, I lived in Port Macquarie for most of life. There, I was continuously involved with the outdoors, particularly the ocean. Through this involvement I developed a love for the ocean. I would often see on the news how other oceans and marine ecosystems were being damaged and destroyed as a result of human activity. This made me consider how I could prevent such damage and destruction happening where I lived, but didn’t know what to do.

I didn’t become actively involved in sustainability until I moved to Canberra in year ten, where I was introduced to sustainability by a former teacher at the school who was passionate about all things sustainable. About eighteen months ago, he asked whether anyone was interested in attending a sustainable businesses expo. As someone who didn’t really know much about sustainability at the time, I decided to attend the expo. There I was fascinated by all the different sustainable initiatives and alternative ways of living without severely damaging the planet.

Soon afterwards, I set about, with the assistance of my teacher, changing the mindset and attitude of school and the school’s wider community in regard to sustainability.

The first thing which I set about doing was forming the Sustainability Committee which comprised of other boys in the school who shared a common interest in promoting sustainability. Over the past eighteen months, the Committee has been actively involved in promoting sustainability throughout the school.

This involvement has included:

• the introduction of an efficient paper recycling system throughout all faculties,
• improvements to the normal recycling system around the school,
• the introduction of a battery recycling system, and
• the promotion of renewable energies through displays and demonstrations at school fetes.

If I could offer any advice to those considering being involved in sustainability, it would be to definitely get involved.

You don’t need to be an expert or even know anything about sustainability; if you are passionate about sustainability and care about the future health of the planet, then that’s all you need to get started.

I think that by plunging straight in as I did provides you with a great learning experience. Not only have I learnt a great deal about sustainability but I have also improved on a number of life skills including my communication skills and my management skills. I think that if everyone could change just a few things in their lives to more Eco friendly methods, there would be a real positive effect on the environment which will not only benefit the ecosystems in which we live but us as humans as well.