Rotary Melbourne's 44th Meeting of this Rotary year and our 5,035th all time Club meeting, in its one 103rd year celebrated World Environment Day which this year coincided with the Club’s weekly meeting on 5 June 2024.
Meeting MC was Nick Pelham, who will assume the role of Chair of the Environment Sustainability Committee on 1 July 2024. The reflection was delivered by Ruth Carlos-Martinez, and is published in full later in this bulletin.
Business for the day was guided by President Chris Sotiropoulos it included:
Ruth’s full citation is published later in this Bulletin.
President Chris then handed over Chairmanship of the meeting to Barbara Yerondais who chaired the selection panel for the 2024 Environment Award; other members were past President Phil Endersbee, and Sharann Johnson.
In 2021 Melbourne Rotary ran its inaugural Environment Sustainability Award, focusing on improving ecological sustainability.
Previous awardees include:
And a specific commendation award to
The of this, the 3rd Environment award is focused on tomorrow’s leaders.
The Award was inspired by the need to take action to support the environment, being one of Rotary’s 7 areas of focus. Specifically in the areas of;
Barbara explained that this year the Award was focused on excellence in environment sustainability in secondary school aged students who have made a significant contribution to their community.
The 2024 Award criteria was for a group of secondary school students who have created or developed a project, that demonstrates leadership in sustainability and community engagement.
The purpose of the award is to:
The Award is a $3000 grant to be paid to the school of the winning entrant, to be spent on an environment and sustainability project.
All secondary schools in Metropolitan Melbourne were invited to submit an application for the award, for student projects that addressed the award criteria.
We were pleased to receive some 16 applications, most of them outstanding. The selection panel was confronted with the task of deciding which application was most worthy of the award and recognition.
Barbara introduced Claire Moore, CEO of Sweat Justice and the recipient of the Club’s first environment sustainability Award in 2021-22. Claire assisted in presentation of the Environment Sustainability Award highlighting the citation which is published in full below. Claire spoke briefly through Q&A about the challenges facing bee keeping and pollination experienced in Sweet Justice’s social enterprise of training beekeepers and honey production.
The Star of the Sea, project leaders Beth Mandile and Emily Jarvinen, the school’s Sustainability Captains, and their Sustainability coordinatorr, teacher Michele Parkinson, were present to accept the 2024 Rotary Melbourne Environmental Sustainability Award.
Their project, under the heading of Waste and the Circular Economy, focuses on Fast Fashion.
Particularly focusing on influencing impressionable year 9 students, with a number of activities, culminating in getting the year 9 girls to take action by
Beth and Emily through the Star of the Sea Sustainability Club, presented, coordinated and influenced the school and wider community through education, and organising a number of activities, including:
Barbara noted that Beth and Emily have demonstrated that they could be future Rotarians and encouraged them to continue their endeavours in Sustainable practice.
To view the recording of the full meeting Click here. To view the Award presentation Click here.
Citation
ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY AWARD 2024
Awarded to
Sustainability Capitans
Beth Mandile and Emily Jarvinen
Star of the Sea
The Rotary Club of Melbourne Environmental Sustainability Award for 2024 recognizes the distinguished service of Star of the Sea Students Beth Mandile and Emily Jarvinen, and their teacher, Sustainability Co Ordinator Michele Parkinson towards Rotary International’s Seventh Area of Focus, Supporting the Environment.
Through this Award, Rotary Melbourne recognises and applauds the Star of the Sea students willingness to put service above self with their important, inspiring and fun project to explore and expose the consequences of ‘fast fashion’.
The project titled, “Throw Out Wasteful Habits Not the Planet”, is an initiative aimed to stop the environmentally devasting cycle of Fast Fashion by introducing students to more sustainable ways of growing their wardrobe. It aimed to repurpose and upcycle clothes, and to make students think before purchasing fast fashion.
Beth Mandile and Emily Jarvinen, as the Star of the Sea Sustainability Club Captains for 2023 and 2024, committed to inspiring and educating the Star community towards achieving sustainability and social justice goals. Their focus has been on Waste, with a particular interest in Fast Fashion.
Star of the Sea is a Catholic secondary school with 1200 female students. It is located 1.5km from the North Brighton foreshore, and the sea has a religious and secular resonance for the school community.
A Sustainability Captain is selected each year, through application and interview, to run the Sustainability Club. This Club has members from varying year levels and in 2023 began meeting fortnightly. The Sustainability Coordinator has a time allocation to help the Club members implement strategies, and the Club has an annual budget of $1000.
The Star of the Sea Sustainability Club is committed to inspiring and educating the school community towards achieving sustainability and social justice goals in line with the Presentation and Kildare Ministry sustainability objectives.
The 2023 PROJECT - “Throw Out Wasteful Habits Not the Planet” Target audience included students, teachers, and school families.
A range of actions were designed to build on each other and create awareness of the impacts our everyday actions have on the environment. Sustainability Week in July 2023 was the culmination of many of these initiatives. The most popular and far-reaching action was the Clothes Swap in September. This has continued in 2024, with three Clothes Swaps planned.
The Sustainability Captains and their Coordinator presented to all Year 9 students to explain how fast fashion manipulates consumers to increase their consumption and its damaging effects on the environment. As well it was made clear why fast fashion is not ethically sustainable. The aim was to positively influence student retail consumption while they are on the cusp of having their own money and potentially making more purchases. Students were asked to take one of 4 actions after the presentation
The GOALS of the CLOTHES SWAP
In an endeavour to educate the broader school community about fast fashion, a display with a garbage bag of discarded clothing in the library reinforced the messages about Fast Fashion.
Mannequins dressed in slow and fast fashion to illustrate the differences between these methods of production. A garbage bag at the feet of the fast fashion model shows the average volume of clothes disposed of by each Australian per year.
The Sustainability Club then conducted a successful CLOTHES SWAP, swapping approximately 350 items of clothing and saving it from landfill. Students who bought clothes registered via a QR code, and this allowed them an equal number of free “purchases”. Otherwise, students paid a gold coin for the clothes.
Funds raised have been donated to the Brigidine Asylum Seeker Project.
Post clothing swap was a an “upcycle” workshop at lunchtime where students could either mend their favourite piece of clothing rather than throw it out. In Term 4 Christmas wreaths were made by wrapping material from some of the more colourful leftover clothes around coat hanger wire. The balance of the clothes were donated to a women’s shelter as they were mainly clothes for late primary and early secondary school-aged children.
Presented on behalf of the Club by Barbara Yerondais & Claire Moore, CEO Sweet Justice
Dr Chris Sidiropoulos, President
5 June 2024
