Sustainable Students

We aim to research the cost involved for families when returning to school, particularly in regard to the school uniform. We then hope to reduce this cost by making the uniform in our school community more sustainable.

Our Social Issue

The social issue of concern to us is the cost of returning to school for families, particularly in regard to the school uniform. We also are concerned about the sustainability of our school uniform.

Why We Chose It

We chose this issue as it was one the majority of our group felt passionately about. It was clear to us all that as a school community we could be making more of an effort to be more sustainable and we believed this was a good issue to choose and there are so many simple ways we can all be more sustainable and we believed it would be very possible to make big strides towards a common goal if everyone could make some very small changes in their behaviour.

Our Goal

Our main goal is to make our school a more sustainable community. Our main initiative is to return as many eligible bottles and cans as possible and donate money to our local Tidy Towns. We noticed that regular waste bins were full of cans and bottles after lunch. In addition to this, we also recognised that we had to educate the members of our community in relation to sustainability. We did this by delivering lessons to students and teaching them how they can be more sustainable. We encouraged students to walk/cycle/carpool and we created a compost heap in our school.

Our Innovative Action

We have managed to raise on average €10 a week for our Tidy Towns committee while also returning hundreds of bottles and cans which otherwise would not have been returned. We also have seen a considerable increase in students walking and cycling to school through educating the community on sustainability. We also now have a compost heap and we plan to use the resulting compost in our school's polytunnel/allotment.

Our Impact

We have made a positive difference by improving our community's impact on the environment. We are responsible for less carbon emissions due to the increase in students walking, cycling and carpooling to school. We are proud to have returned hundreds of bottles which were otherwise going to go to waste. Our biggest impact, we think, is the education we have given the community in relation to sustainability and the habits and practices we can all take up in our every-day lives, both in and out of school.