In celebration of World Environment Day, Firbank’s Environmental Action Group (EAG) decided to hold a nude food lunch. For those of you who are new to the phrase, a nude food lunch is a rubbish free lunch – no gladwrap, packaged products or plastic bags. Instead students are to bring their lunch in containers and use lunchboxes. The purpose of this day is of course to reduce the amount of waste produced by our school.World Environment DayReducing waste is the main focus of this year for the EAG as we are in the process of completing the waste module of the Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative. Firbank already has recycling programs in place for plastics, paper and ink cartridges and is minimising paper usage through double-sided printing and utilising the Internet in regards to newsletters and class work. However, there is still much work to be done to reduce our waste production.

The Year 7 students participated in the annual ‘Clean Up Australia Day’ and as part of the Year 10 community service program, girls have been working on the environmental program Think.Act.Green, conducted by the University of Melbourne. Here they have been learning about sustainability issues and brainstorming new ideas to combat environmental issues such as climate change so they can make changes within the school community. Staff members have also been attending meetings regarding sustainability to discuss ways of reducing the school’s production of waste.

It is important that we use our knowledge of environmental issues to empower us to take action on climate change. EAG is committed to raising awareness of environmental issues by supporting Earth Hour and Nude Food Lunches. However, it is of even more importance that we all take action now in our everyday lives.