On the 25th of August, Edmund Rice College hosted its annual sustainability conference, consisting of a variety of students from schools ranging from Waverly in Sydney all the way down south to Nowra.

The conference provided all students with a chance to share the initiatives that they currently have at their own schools via a video format, before each school split up into groups with students from different schools of their own. This provided students with an opportunity to collaborate with people who have different ideas and points of view. These new ideas were then brought back to each school group, where we collaborated even further to create a poster of the new initiatives that we would like to run. ERC created a poster that showcased our idea for a composting system and basketball hoops on our bins to reduce littering.

Succeeding this, Costa Georgiadis, our guest speaker, gave a speech on how the factor of convenience plays a critical role in everyday sustainability. He then provided some feedback on the initiatives our schools were doing, before concluding with a question-and-answer segment.

Overall, the annual EcoERC sustainability conference provided students with the opportunity to collaborate on issues that affect the sustainability of their schools in a way that promoted discussion among everyone. The conference was a great experience for all and we are very much looking forward to the next conference.

Written by Sam Stevin.