Vision - Creating a greener future

At St Joseph’s College, we are committed to helping students develop their knowledge and understanding of the natural world and to gain an appreciation of how their actions impact on the environment and influence change. We aim to foster the notion of stewardship by incorporating environmentally conscious actions in our daily activities across all facets of our College life, to help inspire students to take action for a more sustainable future.

Reducing our Ecological Footprint

At St Joseph’s College we are committed to develop and implement sustainable practices to reduce our ecological footprint and our guiding principles and strategic approach is outlined in our Sustainability Policy (See link) and School Environmental Management Plan (See link). With our involvement in Sustainability Victoria’s ResourceSmart program and the Schools Water Efficiency Program (SWEP), our actions are centered around resource management in the areas of Biodiversity, Energy, Waste and Water.

Recycling

With the aim of reducing our carbon footprint, an extensive recycling regime has been established at St Joseph’s College. Recycling of waste in the college grounds encompasses: Fully commingled recycling and composting via worm farming and the Bokashi system. Other recycling endeavours throughout the college incorporates; Aluminium cans, Craft items, Ewaste (items with electrical components), Ink cartridges & toner, ‘soft plastics’ (REDcycling), polystyrene, shredded paper, woodwork off cuts. Paper is also recycled in the classroom with the use of paper "re-use" trays for storage. Various small items including: bread clips, corks, plastic bottle tops (numbers 2 & 4 only) and stamps are also recycled.

St Joseph’s College has established an ongoing collection of pre-loved items including; bicycles, blankets, bras, clothing and shoes for donation to various organisations.

All families are encouraged to support our CUT THE WRAP initiative by ensuring students bring a “plastic waste free” lunch and reusable water bottle (filled) to school each day.

Students are expected to take responsibility for the appropriate management and recycling of their waste and should endeavour to learn where and how all items are recycled.

How do I know what goes in the right bin at St Joseph's?

There are lots of different coloured bins around the College, so it is good to know exactly what bin you should be using. Hover over the image of the bin below to see what sort of items can be placed in it. 

The St Joseph’s A-Z Recycling guide

Enviroservice

Service Learning is an integral component of our commitment to stewardship and working toward ecological sustainability. Enviroservice is essentially service learning in the form of stewardship for the environment. Enviroservice is conducted each term and students may elect to complete their three hours of service learning by participating in an Enviroservice initiative. Students may also elect to participate in an approved Enviroservice activity outside of school hours such as National Clean Up Australia Day and National Tree Planting Day.

Sustainability Leadership

Sustainability Leaders are appointed on a volunteer basis and may remain a member of the Sustainability team for the duration of their enrolment at St Joseph’s College.

Leaders are encouraged to foster a sustainable approach to all ecological endeavours and lead by example, to inspire others to take action to reduce their carbon footprint.

As ambassadors for their year level, Sustainability Leaders attend regular meetings and develop and promote sustainability initiatives. They are provided opportunity to broaden their community networks by becoming actively involved in national events including; Earth Hour, Clean Up Australia Day and National Tree Planting Day and other local events incorporating community tree planting and recycling workshops at local Primary Schools.

Sustainability Leadership Application

Students from any year level may apply to become a Sustainability Leader.
The Sustainability team ideally encompasses representatives from each year level and for any given year, we aim to appoint at least one representative from each Year 7 homeroom. Once appointed, students may elect to continue their role as a Sustainability Leader subsequent years for which they are students at St Joseph’s College.

Students may apply to become a Sustainability Leader via the form below

Ubi Real Time Energy Data for St Joseph's College Geelong 

Mondo Power in collaboration with RACV Solar, installed Ubi software devices to existing solar installations at three locations across both St Joseph's campuses including; Edmund Rice Campus (D and F Block - 89.1 kW installation) the Trade Training Centre (11kW installation) and Westcourt (85.4kW installation), enabling simultaneous real time “capture” of energy production and consumption across each campus. Community members may access the portal to view energy production via the link below 

https://myubi.mondopower.com.au/home

using the following Logon: [email protected] and password: ubisjc2022