Kew High School Triumphs at Sustainability Awards
Kew Eco Crew and Elise Dunstan
Sustainability Victoria
Kew High School has triumphed at the 2025 ResourceSmart Schools Awards winning the Student Action Team of the Year (Secondary), and Teacher of the Year (Secondary) categories at an awards ceremony in Melbourne on 5 June 2025.
There were 31 schools vying for the awards in Victoria’s largest celebration for primary and secondary school students, teachers, and school volunteers taking sustainability action.
Kew Eco Crew
The school’s Kew Eco Crew, comprised of students in Years 9 to 12 has demonstrated outstanding leadership with the group implementing an organic waste system using worm towers, and recycling drink containers through the Container Deposit Scheme (CDS Vic), driving school-wide participation through posters, speeches, and social media.
Matt Genever, Sustainability Victoria’s CEO, congratulated Kew High School on its success. ‘Kew High School has embodied the theme of the ResourceSmart Schools Awards, ‘Working Together’, demonstrating a strong commitment to fostering collective partnerships to build the future we need.’
Teacher of the year
Teacher of the Year winner, Elise Dunstan, has led the way in environmental education, integrating sustainability into school operations and curriculum. She prepares students for careers in sustainability through events like the Kew High School Sustainability Summit, with an attendance of over 200 students and featuring various industry and community organisations.
Other examples of Elise’s work include working with international students and students with additional needs, driving CDS Vic collections, and encouraging worm farming, recycling and waste management.
The judges praised Elise’s work, ‘The way Elise is developing future sustainability leaders and using collective partnerships to build the future we need is to be commended. The Kew Eco Crew too, has demonstrated outstanding environmental leadership by hosting the Sustainability Summit and is an inspiration for other schools.’
ResourceSmart Schools Program
ResourceSmart Schools is a free Victorian Government program delivering sustainability education to help schools minimise waste, save energy and water, promote biodiversity and act on climate change. This year, Sustainability Victoria is marking 16 years of the Awards with the theme, ‘Working Together’.
Since 2008, the program has reached over 1,600 Victorian schools. Together they have planted more than 5.1 million trees, saved over $63 million through energy, waste and water savings, diverted 170,000 cubic metres of waste from landfill and avoided over 110,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
This year’s winners were announced at a prestigious awards ceremony held at the MCG hosted by TV personality Costa Georgadis. The 2025 ResourceSmart Schools Awards would not be possible without the generous support of sponsors, CDS Vic, Bank First and the Department of Education.
Auburn High School Senior Centre earns a commendation in the 2025 Dulux Colour Awards
The Dulux Colour Awards are one of the longest-running architectural and design awards programs in Australasia. The Awards give recognition to the most inspired and transformative examples of colour use in the built environment, and are synonymous with excellence and innovation. This year’s winners, chosen from projects across Australia and New Zealand, were announced at the National Gallery of Victoria on 28 May.
The Auburn High School Senior Centre earned a Commendation in the Commercial Interior Public and Hospitality Section of the awards. The Centre was designed by WOWOWA Architecture who also specified the colours used.
In awarding this commendation, the panel of judges commented that high schools were once bland, predictably grey buildings with dull interiors and very little to distinguish one from another. In their opinion, the Senior Centre showed that those days are long gone.
Drawing inspiration from its natural setting, the design centres around the use of vibrant colour from the warmer part of the spectrum. Rather than single colours assigned to specific spaces, the palette is integrated across classrooms, labs, communal areas and transition spaces. Unpainted elements have been colour-matched to the paint finishes, enabling the interior to blend with the exterior. The result is ambient and uplifting – the antithesis of the typical high school of years gone by.
Local Schools Shine as Sustainability Finalists
Sustainability Victoria
Three local schools, Box Hill High School, Camberwell Grammar School and Kew High School have been named as finalists in the 2025 ResourceSmart Schools Awards.
Box Hill High School has been nominated as a finalist in the Emerging School of the Year category, while Camberwell Grammar School is vying for the title of Campus Infrastructure & Operations School of the Year and Kew High School is hoping to win two gongs; Student Action Team of the Year (Secondary and Teacher of the Year (Secondary).
Box Hill High School’s journey began in 2022 with the establishment of a sustainability club, which has grown from four members to more than 25. The school community has worked together to implement composting, container recycling, and a recycled stationery station. They have also delivered annual events like Sustainability Week, beeswax wrap making, and Walk/Ride2School Day. The school has also worked with Monash University students on a car idling research project to reduce emissions around the school.
Camberwell Grammar School boosted the sustainability of its cafeteria by reducing landfill waste, improving recycling, and ensuring ethical purchasing. Students, staff, suppliers and parents worked together on key initiatives such as eliminating single-use plastics, using reusable bowls and cutlery, and implementing Food and Garden Organics (FOGO) bins. Student-led campaigns promoting sustainability behaviours complemented these operational improvements. The school has improved waste sorting and reduced contamination, with annual audits revealing a reduction in landfill emissions and improved recycling rates.
Kew High School has established The Kew Eco Crew, comprising students in Years 9 to 12 working together to make their school more resource efficient. The group implemented an organic waste system using worm towers, and diverted drink containers from landfill through the Container Deposit Scheme (CDS Vic), driving school-wide participation through posters, speeches and social media.
Kew High School’s Teacher of the Year nominee, Elise Dunstan, has led the way in environmental education, integrating sustainability into school operations and curriculum. Elise’s efforts include working with international students and students with additional needs, driving CDS Vic collections and promoting worm farming, recycling, and waste management. She prepares students for careers in sustainability by empowering them through events like the Kew High School Sustainability Summit, which attracted over 200 students and featured various industry and community organisations.
ResourceSmart celebrates sustainability action in schools
There are 31 schools vying for an award in Victoria’s largest celebration for primary and secondary school students, teachers and school volunteers taking sustainability action. This year, Sustainability Victoria is marking 16 years of the ResourceSmart Schools Awards with the theme, ‘Working Together’.
Katie Pahlow, Director Regions & Community Action, Sustainability Victoria, says, “We can achieve so much more when we work together, whether that’s with other students, other schools, other teachers, or the wider community beyond the school gate. By working together, our efforts combine to build the future we need.”
ResourceSmart Schools is a free Victorian Government program delivering sustainability education to help Victorian schools minimise waste, save energy and water, promote biodiversity and act on climate change. Since 2008, ResourceSmart Schools has reached over 1,600 Victorian schools. Together they have planted more than 5.1 million trees, saved over $63 million through energy, waste and water savings, diverted 170,000 cubic metres of waste from landfill and avoided over 110,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
This year’s winners will be announced at a prestigious awards ceremony held at the MCG on 5 June. The 2025 ResourceSmart Schools Awards would not be possible without the generous support of sponsors, CDS Vic, Bank First and the Department of Education.
For information about this year’s finalists, please visit www.sustainability.vic.gov.au/2025-rssa-finalists
Nurturing Australia’s next generation of energy-savvy students – Mount Lilydale Mercy College project
How embracing solar technology is helping a Victorian college save 77 tonnes of CO2 and the planet.
Solahart
Located in Melbourne’s outer east, Mount Lilydale Mercy College is a leading Catholic co-educational secondary school. Founded in 1896 and serving the needs of more than 1500 students, the College recognises the importance of sustainable practices, not only for its future but for the environment.
As part of Mount Lilydale Mercy College’s commitment to sustainability in the learning environment, the school has installed water tanks for recycled water use, rolled out waste recycling upgrades, and expanded green spaces.
In recognition of these recent efforts, the College has achieved a 5-star rating from the ResourceSmart Schools Awards by Sustainability Victoria and was awarded the title of 2024 Secondary School Winner in the Community Leadership School 2024 – Fostering Responsible, Community-Oriented Citizens category.
Sustainable pathways for future-focused college
With a primary goal to reduce daytime power consumption and offset carbon emissions, Mount Lilydale Mercy College partnered with Solahart Eastern Ranges to upgrade its existing solar infrastructure. Being a family-owned and operated business, the team at Solahart Eastern Ranges are passionate about supporting the local community and were delighted to help Mount Lilydale Mercy College on its journey to a more sustainable future.
As part of its pledge to green solutions and building an energy-conscious cohort, the College enlisted Solahart Eastern Ranges’ expertise to explore efficient ways to monitor the school’s energy usage and report to the Sustainability Victoria ResourceSmart Schools Program.
Mount Lilydale Mercy College’s Assistant Business Manager, Cathy Pote, states, ‘Our College has been working towards becoming more sustainable with initiatives such as building outdoor learning spaces, reducing waste and water usage, and creating more green spaces with our annual tree-planting day. In partnership with Yarra Valley Water and Yarra Ranges Council, the students have been actively involved in a regeneration program to revive the natural ecosystem on the College’s leased sports ground, including indigenous vegetation, to increase native wildlife.
Ms Pote explained why they had decided to partner with Solahart. ‘Given our energy consumption as a large College, we knew monitoring our usage and creating better energy efficiency was important. As well as upgrading to solar power, the school also consulted with Solahart Eastern Ranges on how we could monitor the patterns and peaks in our usage to conserve energy and identify waste.’