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
Kew Eco Crew and Elise Dunstan
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.