2024 has been a BIG year for Sustainability at Merici (SAM) and Sustainability Captain, Neve Larsen, who took the reins with enthusiasm and energy, and superbly managed the Instagram account.
Term 1 started with a campaign to correctly sort our waste and reduce waste to landfill and finished with 8 students attending the Schools Climate Conference in Canberra at the University of Canberra. An application was also submitted to the ACT Environmental Grants Program to expand our Biodiversity Restoration Project with fingers crossed and in Term 2 we were awarded $23,800 towards additional site preparation, planting, mulching, irrigation and fencing!
We also received our long-awaited electric bikes, and our commercial-scale worm farm from Global Worming. Work has continued on our biodiversity restoration project, including a biodiversity audit to provide baseline data. We observed key calendar events such as Earth Hour, presented to Catholic Education and Catholic Earthcare about our sustainability work here, collected hundreds of bottle caps for Terracycle, made face scrub from coffee grounds, and had a visit from Lids 4 Kids. Currently, we are preparing for our annual Sw(op) shop in Term 4 to divert fabric waste from landfill and reduce demand for resources, with gold coin donations going to Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF).
Merici College is proud to celebrate the achievements of Neve Larsen, our 2024 Sustainability Captain, who received a Highly Commended recognition for the 2024 Environment and Sustainability Award. Neve was also honoured as a nominee for the Young Canberra Citizen of the Year.
My heartfelt thanks to Neve Larsen for all her tremendous work this year! Congratulations to Rebecca Price who has been appointed the 2025 Sustainability Captain!
Ms. Felicity Maher
Sustainability Officer
