Our sustainability strategy

Julie Harris-Wetherbee, Program Leader – Experiential Learning and Sustainable Practices

Carey’s commitment to sustainability was established some years ago with the articulation of its five strategic priorities. These include a specific commitment to Sustainable Operations, and the promotion of social, environmental and financial integrity across all levels of the School’s governance, management and engagement with the educational, pastoral and community-oriented aspirations of the School.

Much of the effort in this area has been directed to the management of waste; enhancing our buildings, landscapes and recreational spaces to become more efficient; and the establishment of targets and monitoring systems to reduce our consumption of water and energy. There has also been investment in curricular and co-curricular programs with a focus on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Next year, we will launch our strategic priorities for 2023 onwards, including our renewed focus on Sustainable Futures and ensuring that we preserve both our school and our planet for our future students. This represents a greater emphasis on taking action to make a significant difference and is based on our community’s feedback, current available about the state of our world, and what we have learnt as a school about how to make effective and long-lasting change in our community.

Looking to the future, and particularly the future of the students in our care, Carey is aiming to expand both the way in which sustainability is understood across our school community and the way it is expressed through the daily ritual of sustainable practices within the school. This will include a focus on the amplification and valorisation of student voice in the development of priorities for sustainable management of the school, and more open and active engagement with the world outside of Carey, especially as it relates to our natural environment.

To this end, Carey has engaged engineering specialists erbas to assist in formulating a clear vision and strategy for the future development of our sustainability goals – social, environmental and governance related – and to ensure that our built environments support and promote our progress in achieving these goals.

The Environmental Group, who work on developing practical solutions for enhancing our sustainability. of Carey, especially as it relates to our natural environment.

Staff and students from all areas of the school with specific interests, experience and expertise in these areas have also been engaged to participate in the development of these goals. Much of the emphasis for the future development of our vision for Carey involves creating a shared understanding of sustainability that captures the unique nature of Carey’s focus on a holistic education, particularly its emphasis on student wellbeing. Part of this process will involve a review of our curricular and co-curricular programs and the way sustainability priorities are reflected in our approach to teaching and learning.

We are also working to support the aspirations of staff and students who are providing leadership in the development of sustainability initiatives. Some examples of these include the Year 3 Kitchen Garden Program in Junior School Kew, the Year 4 Environmental Program in Junior School Donvale, and the student-led Environmental Group in the Middle and Senior Schools, as well as the new Zero program in Year 10, which you can read about on page 6.

We asked some of our students about their take on sustainability and what we can do to help. Their responses, represented by this sample of five students – Darlene in Year 3, Lucas in Year 6, Claire in Year 8, Fiona in Year 9 and Josh in Year 11 – are a poignant reminder of how our students understand sustainability and its implications for their futures. They also provide a valuable point of reference against which to measure our future progress.

How do you think we can be more sustainable at Carey?

Darlene: Putting rubbish in the bin and putting soft plastic in the soft plastic bag or bin. Bring lunch and snacks for recess in containers.

Lucas: Picking up rubbish as we see it.

Claire: Using less lights, lowering our use of electricity and implementing compost and soft plastic bins to reduce the volume of landfill we produce as a school.

Fiona: I think that what I want for sustainability at Carey is to be seen as a school that takes action on reducing carbon dioxide and a place where we are solving the world’s issues.

Josh: We need an informed student body and systems that facilitate sustainable growth and the functioning of the school.

What does sustainability mean to you?

Darlene: Not littering and always putting rubbish in the bin or recycling. Keep the earth clean.

Lucas: To proceed with an action without harm to the environment.

Claire: Creating and using items that can be sustained and are a positive addition to the environment.

Fiona: Doing things that are good for the environment and reducing our carbon emissions and our footprint.

Josh: Maintaining the beauty that surrounds us and that we make up. It’s about holding on to what we love and cherish!

How do you think students can help us to achieve our sustainability goals?

Darlene: Posters to remind people what to do. Or younger students that have siblings in Middle or Senior School, they can tell them, and they can tell their friend to help be sustainable.

Lucas: Come up with plans as a cohort and execute them until we find something that works.

Claire: Students can get involved by helping develop more rubbish bin stations to make disposing our waste an easy process.

Fiona: We can give our opinion on what we should do to help the environment so it helps everyone in the community.

Josh: Voicing ideas. Taking responsibility for actions. Educating ourselves and others.