2026 ResourceSmart Schools Awards

Last updated: 23 April 2026
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The ResourceSmart School Awards are Victoria’s largest sustainability celebration for primary and secondary school students, teachers and school volunteers.

The 2026 theme, ‘Our sustainable community’, celebrates teachers, students and stakeholders sharing knowledge, passion, and commitment to drive sustainability for a thriving environment.

Celebrate with 'Our sustainable community' in 2026!

Finalists announced

Read about this year's finalists below. Winners will be announced at the awards event on Thursday 11 June 2026.

'Proud, accepted, valued, uplifted, seen and inspired – that’s the feeling 2025 attendees took home from the awards.'

Key dates

Entries open Monday 20 October 2025
Entries close Monday 16 March 2026
Finalists announced Thursday 23 April 2026
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Awards event at the Melbourne Cricket Ground Thursday 11 June 2026

Award presentation event

Date: 11 June 2026 from 10 am to 2 pm
Location: Melbourne Cricket Ground

This premier event is by invitation only, with all finalists, event sponsors, delivery partners (CERES, Environment Education Victoria, and Eastern Alliance for Sustainable Learning), and government and industry leaders in sustainability.

We offer subsidies for travel and for casual relief staff so that our finalist schools can attend the ResourceSmart Schools Awards as cost neutral as possible.

Watch highlights from the 2025 awards presentation event.

Thank you to our sponsors

We are proud to collaborate with our sponsors to help deliver the ResourceSmart Schools Awards and to inspire our young people and schools to lead the way on sustainability.

The 2026 ResourceSmart Schools Awards would not be possible without the generous support of CDS Vic, the Department of Education, Bank First, Premier Waste and RMIT University.

ResourceSmart School of the Year

Recognising outstanding sustainability achievement in Victorian primary and secondary schools through:

  • positive impact and innovation
  • addressing sustainability as a cross-curriculum priority in the Victorian Curriculum
  • engaging the broader community
  • improvements to campus operations and/infrastructure
  • sustainability leadership in the education sector/other schools.

Finalists

Campus Infrastructure and Operations School of the Year

Celebrating schools that have been making significant improvements to their school campus through infrastructure improvements or changes to everyday operations and processes.

Finalists

Emerging School of the Year

Celebrating schools that have recently joined RSS and already started to embed sustainability in everything they do.

Finalists

School Volunteer of the Year

Celebrating a volunteer or volunteer group who supports the implementation of sustainability activities by contributing their time and expertise.

Finalists

Student Action Team of the Year

Celebrating student teams that best demonstrate environmental leadership.

Primary School finalists

Secondary School finalists

Curriculum Leadership School of the Year

Recognising teaching and learning of sustainability through the Victorian curriculum, and the creative and innovative approaches to addressing sustainability in lesson plans, units of work or school-wide curriculum.

Primary School finalists

Secondary School finalists

CDS Vic Excellence Award

Celebrating schools using the Victoria’s Container Deposit Scheme (CDS Vic) to achieve sustainability goals.

Sponsored by Victoria's Container Deposit Scheme.

Primary school finalists

Secondary school finalists

Teacher of the Year

Recognising sustainability educators who are embedding sustainability into the school’s curriculum and activities, fostering connections beyond the school gate and contributing to tangible impacts on the school’s sustainability program.

Primary school finalists

Secondary school finalists