Global Sustainability Goals

In September 2015, 192 world leaders through the United Nations committed to 17 global goals for sustainable development to be achieved by 2030. Seventeen goals to achieve three extraordinary things in the next 15 years. End extreme poverty, fight inequality and injustice and address climate change. 

Last week at the Prep - Year 5 assembly, I spoke to the students about these goals and how they can both, as individuals and collectively, assist in the achievement of these goals locally by doing the simple act of recycling food and other waste material. Simple individual actions such as recycling, saving water by turning a tap off when brushing your teeth, or turning a light off when you leave a room save valuable drinking water and reduce greenhouse emissions by reducing power usage.

As a College, we can also play our part in helping to achieve these goals by providing an education encouraging creative thought, problem solving and problem identification skills and by providing students the opportunity to act in ways that support the achievement of these goals.

This term, Year 4 students are engaged in the Eden Walk. A project designed to allow students to connect with others and to gain some appreciation of how and where others live. You can view more about this project at: http://www.nationalgeographic.org/projects/out-of-eden-walk/.

This term throughout the Junior College, the waste-recycling program will continue to include the onsite processing of organic waste (generated from lunch scraps, paper towel and other organic waste generated on the college grounds) into compost. The compost will be used on gardens and any excess will be available to the community.

As part of the recycling/sustainability philosophy at Pacific in all Junior College eating areas, separate bins are available for organic waste, recyclable waste and non-recyclable waste.  In classrooms two bins are provided for recyclable waste and non-recyclable waste. Initially an audit of how much organic waste is generated weekly was carried out. The audit revealed that as much as 70 per cent of the mass of waste sent to landfill each week is organic in nature. An OSCA (On Site Composting Apparatus) turns this organic waste into clean, useable compost.

Developing a social culture of sustainability begins in childhood. By involving students in the practical application of such a philosophy, as a school we can help students grow into adults who practice simple forms of waste management and recycling. Individually we may perceive our actions make only a slight difference, collaboratively when we have the knowledge and understanding to change the way we act as a community, the impact can be immense.