St Francis Xavier College, Year 12 Environment Captain Izaiah Roch has been leading a strong group of staff and students at the Beaconsfield Campus in his quest for a cleaner planet.
“I have been very fortunate to be selected as this year’s Environment Captain. Carrying on the work from last year, the enviro group and I have accomplished many projects around the school. At the beginning of the school year the printers were replaced with carbon neutral printers. With the installation of solar panels at all three campuses our carbon footprint is significantly reduced. At the Beaconsfield Campus alone, we have saved over 24 tonnes of carbon dioxide or 152, 418 kilometers – that is enough to travel around Australia 10 times!
“We also focused on the waste issue that is occurring within the college. In partnership with Simply Cups, we started the coffee cup recycling program. This program aims to close the loop and repurpose the cups into new products. We have successfully diverted over 1000 cups this year! Thanks to all who contributed. Whilst the cups are only one part of the waste issue, we can start small and aim for much bigger goals.
“The environment group also hosted its first Environment Awareness Week. This consisted of activities featured throughout the college including coffee stalls with the team wearing promotional environmental T-shirts to promote the use of Ecosia, a search engine that uses advertisement revenue to plant trees! While all these steps may be small, they add up to becoming a greener sustainable school. The group has also planted eight fruit trees ranging from plums to avocados. We hope these trees bear fruits for the school community for many years to come.”
“The school motto for this year is We Grow Together. We as a school community are transforming into a school that understands the need for sustainable change. We collectively need to be more conscious of the environmental impacts on day to day life. Carbon Dioxide is an invisible gas, a by-product of fossil fuels, that has fuelled climate change for decades
“The St Francis Xavier College environment action group is taking positive steps and actions to give hope to the most vulnerable people in the world. We are at a critical moment in the earth’s history to change to a more sustainable future where we can live without the pressure of a dying world.
“We need to take urgent action to reduce the damage that has been done. As one we are giving hope to the planet so we can stay that we stood on the right side of history.”
