ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITTEE
Back Row : Eleanor Squires , Eric Buurmans , Jack Graham , Jamie Matthews , Robert Ennor , Brenda Jones ( Teacher ) Front Row : Rubie Rainger , Emilie Horsfall , Min-Joo Kim , Belle Rainger , Hannah O ’ Herlihy Absent : Adelle Cotter
It has been a productive year for the Environmental Committee as we have continued to make a ‘ green ’ difference within our school and the wider Havelock North community . We kicked off the year with members attending a breakfast presentation by Simon Upton , held by the Hawke ’ s Bay Regional Council ( HBRC ). It was an opportunity for us to learn about realistic sustainable changes to be made . One example is that taking your next annual holiday locally will have a positive impact on the local economy as well as decreasing the need for flights that produce lots of carbon emissions . We also had Drew Broadley from the HBRC visit for a lunch time discussion and , following this , we made a submission towards the ten year Environmental Plan for Hawke ’ s Bay , requesting greater links between Environmental Services and schools .
The sun was shining on the Havestock Festival , where we held a second-hand clothing sale as a way of fundraising money for our committee and following the reduce , reuse , recycle model . Through selling clothes as cheap as fifty cents , over one hundred dollars was raised . Using this profit , a composting system has been set up with bins available around the school , which volunteer members empty . It has also provided more opportunities for our junior students to gain their community service arm of their Diploma - a win-win for all . We hope that this composting scheme can continue to reduce waste at HNHS in the future and are looking to tackle plastics and tins as our next project . A group of students from all year levels also participated in tree planting at Te Mata Park as a part of the Trees for Schools project in July . Alongside local primary schools , our students planted native trees and flax on the section of land that we have adopted on behalf of the school . This is a meaningful and ongoing initiative to be handed over to future students !
Using weekends and teacher-only days , a small group of Year 13s worked on painting a banner as a way to promote the committee at future events and encourage other students to get involved . Many hours have been put into the designing and painting of the banner which we think was definitely worth the effort !
We continue to encourage our students to get involved in the committee activities - there are plenty of local opportunities to help with beach and river clean ups , planting days and excursions as attended by our members throughout the year , which are organised by external service providers and advertised in our Schoology group . Our final task is to establish some core sustainability principles that could become a part of the HNHS School Charter so that we are able to leave a lasting legacy and embed sound practice for our future taurira .
Emilie Horsfall and Min-Joo Kim
40