ResourceSmart Schools Awards 2023

 

The ResourceSmart Schools Awards is Victoria’s largest sustainability celebration for primary and secondary school students, teachers and school volunteers taking remarkable sustainability action.

The theme for this year’s awards is ‘Achieving great things’ – no action is too small.

All active schools are eligible to enter the awards for their chance to attend the action-packed ceremony and to win great prizes to support them on their sustainability journey.

An event will be held on 1 June 2023 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Dr Gillian Sparkes AM, Victoria’s Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability said,

“The Awards celebrate our young people, our teachers and schools leading the way on sustainability and creating real impact for Victorian communities.

I encourage schools to enter these awards as an opportunity to share with your learnings with your local community, and to showcase the practical sustainable actions you’ve found most impactful, as well as to connect to the ResourceSmart Schools network.”

The awards ceremony is a great opportunity for teachers and students to network with other ResourceSmart Schools, government, state ministers and industry leaders in sustainability.

2023 award categories

Schools and individuals achieving great things are invited to nominate in the following award categories:

  • Campus infrastructure and operations
  • Emerging School of the Year 
  • School Volunteer of the Year  
  • Teacher of the Year (Primary)  
  • Teacher of the Year (Secondary)  
  • Student Action Team of the Year (Primary)  
  • Student Action Team of the Year (Secondary)  
  • Community Leadership School of the Year (Primary)  
  • Community Leadership School of the Year (Secondary)  
  • Curriculum Leadership School of the Year (Primary) 
  • Curriculum Leadership School of the Year (Secondary) 
  • ResourceSmart School of the Year. 

Don’t miss this important opportunity to reflect on and celebrate the little and big wins that you and your school community have achieved over the past year.

The awards celebrate all steps towards a sustainable future – no action is too small.

Enter now > https://bit.ly/3Y4TBVQ

The awards are part of Victoria's ResourceSmart Schools program.

ResourceSmart Schools

Sustainability Victoria’s ResourceSmart Schools program provides free practical support for schools to embed sustainability across the school facilities, community, and curriculum, while saving resources and money for the school as well as share learnings beyond the school gate.

The ResourceSmart Schools program is an international award-winning program. It was awarded the 2015 Banksia Education for Sustainability Award and received the gold award at the international 2019 Energy Smart Community Initiative Best Practices Awards at APEC Chile 2019.

ResourceSmart Schools is helping Victoria to transition to a zero-net carbon, circular economy by 2050. In the last school year, over 450 participating schools collectively:

  • Planted more than 10,000 plants
  • Reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 18,000 tonnes of CO2 
  • Saved $4.2 million in energy bills
  • Avoided 280. 657 280,657 kL
  • Avoided 26,000 cubic metres of waste.

ResourceSmart Schools supports teachers with science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) based curriculum approaches. It provides both hands-on and in-class educational experiences for students, by providing teachers with the resources to facilitate and track STEMM activities.

Dr Sparkes explained that “It’s great that the ResourceSmart Schools program is assisting to support teachers, to enable Victorian students to consider exploring future STEMM careers.

STEMM education is critical for sustainable and equitable development. Expanding the pool of STEMM students, professionals, leaders, researchers, educators - and bringing fresh perspectives to problem-solving, benefits us all.”

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