Victoria’s largest sustainability awards program for schools, the ResourceSmart Schools Awards, celebrated the achievements of students, teachers and school volunteers taking sustainability action to protect the environment earlier this month.
Among the innovative projects recognised at the state-wide awards are a biodiversity program assessing microplastic pollution in fish, pop-up school Op Shops, a student-designed waste app, the establishment of frog ‘saunas’ and fish ‘hotels’, and the planting of Bush Tucker Gardens.
Thirty-one primary and secondary schools were finalists across 12 categories at this year’s awards event, which was held in Melbourne on 5 June and hosted by TV presenter Costa Georgiadis.
Lilydale Heights College was recognised with the coveted ResourceSmart School of the Year award for embedding sustainability into the school’s curriculum and culture, providing students and the wider school community with practical and actionable ways to be sustainable.
Taking home two trophies in the primary school category was Heany Park Primary School in Rowville – a winner of the Curriculum Leadership School of the Year and Student Action Team of the Year for its work creating an endangered species awareness week, organising school-wide clean-up events and hosting a weekly gardening club.
Kew High School was a winner in two secondary school categories: Student Action Team of the Year and Teacher of the Year, awarded to Elise Dunstan for her outstanding commitment to environmental leadership. Her efforts include leading the school’s Sustainability Summit, which brought together over 200 students from 19 schools.
The CDS Excellence Award has demonstrated how schools are benefiting from the state’s Container Deposit Scheme, with Wandin Yallock and Kardinia International College winning the respective primary and secondary school titles for reducing waste and raising funds.
This year, Sustainability Victoria marked 16 years of the ResourceSmart Schools Awards with the theme ‘Working Together’, acknowledging the impact of combined efforts.
Matt Genever, Sustainability Victoria’s CEO, said the winners had demonstrated exceptional leadership and commitment to sustainability.
“These remarkable schools have shown the impact we can have when we collaborate on a common goal, and I congratulate all the winners and finalists for working together 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, over 1,600 Victorian schools have participated in the program. 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.
For more information about the winners and finalists, visit:
www.sustainability.vic.gov.au/rssa-2025winners
This article originally appeared in a media release published by Sustainability Victoria.