SV20: From classrooms to communities
In 2025, Sustainability Victoria (SV) is celebrating 20 years of changing what’s possible. We’re looking back at some of our most memorable, exciting and transformative projects delivered on behalf of the Victorian Government.
ResourceSmart Schools
What we did
Since 2008, we’ve delivered the award-winning sustainability education program, ResourceSmart Schools, to over 1,600 Victorian schools, developing the next generation of sustainability leaders, while building momentum in local communities.
Why it matters
It’s one of hundreds of local, grassroots sustainability initiatives we’ve invested in across the state. From community energy projects to developing local and regional circular economies, we’re experts at partnering with communities – in schools, not for profit organisations and local government – to unlock their potential in helping Victoria reach net-zero.
20 years growing sustainability from the grassroots
There is hope.
The immense potential of our young people is unmistakable, according to those we spoke to about the ResourceSmart Schools program.
For 18 years, the program has been a cornerstone of sustainability education in Victoria and beyond, providing a structured, best practice way for more than 1,600 Victorian primary and secondary schools to embed sustainability into their curriculum, operations, and communities.
The program’s participants represent the geographic diversity of Victoria: from Metro Melbourne to the farthest flung regions of the state, bush to the sea. The program is facilitated through regional delivery partners, enabling each school to tailor the program to their local context.
The past two decades have been eventful: evolving environmental challenges, a new wave of sustainability leaders in Generations Z and Alpha, and pivots through setbacks like COVID-19.
But ResourceSmart Schools has remained steadfast, harnessing the power of young people to drive change, both at school and at home, seeding a culture of sustainability that continues to grow across Victoria.
'We wouldn’t be where we are now if we didn’t have ResourceSmart Schools … it’s life changing.'
The ResourceSmart Schools program supports primary and secondary schools across Victoria to implement sustainability initiatives in the areas of waste, energy, biodiversity, and water. The transformation:
Sustainability education that evolves with our world
With our understanding of sustainability increasing in sophistication over the past two decades, the way we educate young people has also shifted.
The ResourceSmart Schools program has gone beyond simple interventions like having a recycling bin or turning off the lights. Alongside waste and energy, the program now encompasses complex systems thinking and topics like climate resilience, biodiversity and, more recently, incorporated Victoria’s emerging circular economy.
ResourceSmart Schools are encouraged to integrate opportunities for sustainability beyond the school gate, such as Victoria’s Container Deposit Scheme. A bespoke online platform – ResourceSmart Schools Online – enables schools to track their environmental impact and cost savings, and access program resources.
'Lots of sustainability programs exist, but ones that really allow schools to directly monitor and evaluate are rare. It is invaluable. We might be trying our best, but if it's not having the impact we're looking for, you know we need that chance to really review and say, "why isn't this working?"'
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the shift to digital learning and created an opportunity to tap into online delivery, not only ensuring continuity during lockdowns but also broadening access for regional and rural schools.
‘Instead of being able to come out to those schools, facilitators could be in touch with them every day and facilitate workshops with teachers across the state remotely,’ explains David Speller, a long-time member of the Education Team at Sustainability Victoria.
The program's unique investment in digital experience hasn’t gone unrecognised, winning the Digital CX and Digital Transformation Award in 2023 at The Australian Business Awards.
ResourceSmart Schools has also matured in its curriculum approach, providing a clear way to embed sustainability holistically at a curriculum level and supporting professional development for educators to incorporate sustainability into a diverse range of subjects, from science and geography to economics and the arts.
This whole-school approach ensures that sustainability is not a siloed ‘add on’, but a lens through which students understand their world and their role in shaping it.
'It’s the best practicing [program] around the world. And I’ve seen them all. The whole package just ticks every box.'
The program’s reputation has seen it make its way across the border. The ACT has now licensed the ResourceSmart Schools program and online platform to deliver their own Sustainable Schools Program.
'The program was just what we wanted,' explains Christine Nuttall, Assistant Director, Government Schools and Communities, ACT Government. 'It had everything we needed, including an evidence base. Rather than reinventing the wheel, we wanted to bring it to the ACT.'
ResourceSmart Schools also received international acclaim in 2019, winning Gold in the Smart Jobs and Consumer category of the Energy Smart Communities Initiative Best Practices Awards, as well as being awarded the Banksia Education for Sustainability Award in 2015.
The impact:
A new generation of sustainability leaders
At its core, ResourceSmart Schools is about empowering young people to lead at a time when the challenges we face, like climate change, biodiversity loss, and resource require, informed citizens who understand the interconnectedness of global issues.
'Educating our young people is the way forward. In these challenging times needing social reform we need strong leadership to get us there,' Peta White says.
'Programs like ResourceSmart Schools facilitate schools to make that transition, to understand how and what their role is in supporting young people to rethink, to be critical and to challenge what we understand as our social constructions, and how we could do things differently.'
The ResourceSmart Schools Awards are a prime example of how the program fosters leadership and connectedness among young people.
For the program community, it’s the event of the season– the Oscars of environmental education – and an opportunity for schools to come together at the MCG, rub shoulders with celebrity MCs, and celebrate their shared achievements.
'It's such a beautiful day, and you can just see the chests of these students all pumped up because they're so proud of themselves, they've worked really hard, and it's being acknowledged', says Pia Wrafter.
For the students, it’s a chance to connect with like-minded peers.
'Unfortunately, it's still not always ‘cool ‘for students to be into environmental things. The program is that chance for them to meet other students and get excited and think, "this is great, and I want to do more, and maybe even do this as a job when I grow up".'
Lilydale Heights College, 2025 ResourceSmart School of the Year award winners. Teacher Shannon Sargent is third from right. The big picture:
Building momentum in your community
Sustainability doesn’t stop at the school gate.
Teacher Shannon Sargent from Lilydale Heights College values the networks and community connections she has forged through the program.
'We now have relationships with local council for tree planting and nesting boxes in the community. It’s powerful – the kids need to see it’s bigger than just what we’re doing here on site,' she says.
One school even delivers an annual human-powered cinema for their local community, pedalling bikes to generate the energy required to roll the movie.
Indeed, one of its most powerful impacts has been the program’s ability to galvanize communities around sustainability, transforming schools into local hubs of environmental action supported by parents, teachers, councils, and community groups.
'Mobilising the Victorian community and the community generally is just so critically important, not only to the success of programs, but also understanding what the community's needs and aspirations are around sustainability.'
ResourceSmart Schools is just one of hundreds of community programs delivered across the past two decades by Sustainability Victoria, many providing the same benefits and positive outcomes: a chance to build local capability and climate resilience, supporting communities to shape their own future through locally relevant and impactful solutions, cutting waste and emissions.
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Stan Krpan:
ResourceSmart Schools is a Victorian Government led initiative. It allows schools to embed sustainability in every aspect of their operations.
It resonates in terms of the curriculum framework. It resonates with students, with teachers and indeed beyond the school gates to the community.
Amanda Carmichael:
We have been involved with ResourceSmart Schools since about 2003, and we have environmental sustainability built into our curriculum.
Market Day is the culmination of a mass program we have called earn and learn, where the children are encouraged to have recycled goods for sale to the rest of the school.
Student:
It's fun to recycle.
Student:
They're made out of socks.
Student:
We got these unused items that I have found around my house.
Student:
I'm just selling them now because I don't use them at home.
Amanda Carmichael:
Everybody, from prep to grade six to staff, are involved with ResourceSmart Schools.
Elise Ioviero:
We've been looking at our purpose-built wetlands this morning. And that was implemented so that we could create a natural habitat for some of these animals that are displaced in our area.
The students are in charge of keeping that habitable for the animals. That's a really good program for them to be able to look at the impacts that we have. And we've currently got Banjo Frogs, Marsh Frogs, Southern Brown Tree Frogs that have moved in.
Student:
Right now we are standing in our beautiful garden.
We get to cook all of the crops and we actually have a farm just there and we use the eggs to take up to the kitchen and cook them.
I've started my own garden at home, so whatever I learn here I can take that back to our kitchen as well.
Elise Ioviero:
They're getting out there, growing it themselves, and they know that what they're eating has no preservatives or chemicals in that.
Student:
We have like Canaries and Diamond Doves and they're all native to this area. And we're helping the environment by being able to get these birds back into the wild.
Stan Krpan:
Schools get to participate at their own pace, it's all about their own community and what makes sense to them.
Julie Wynne:
Five-star school means that you're an exemplary school in sustainability and environmental practices.
We developed a landscape plan for what we wanted to do.
Tom Lindeman:
And from year one right through to year four, which is about 550 of our students, have a 10-week program in the garden every year.
Julie Wynne:
And our vision of being a five-star school is that we are building sustainable citizens for the future.
Tom Lindeman:
They're engaged in real life learning and that has a result and a benefit for their well-being.
Student:
This is the lizard enclosure. We built this area for mostly the kids to enjoy all the reptiles.
Student:
We grow carrots, peppers, lots of vegetables and we use them in our 'garden to kitchen' classes.
Student:
We have so many opportunities to expand our learning.
Amanda Carmichael:
You recycle, you reuse, you repurpose things and everything we do has impact.
Elise Ioviero:
We implement so much of those values into our core teaching.
Julie Wynne:
Every person that does ResourceSmart or becomes proactive in the area makes a difference.
Student:
Go bit by bit, step by step, and build up your stars and then maybe you'll become a five-star ResourceSmart School like us.
Stan Krpan:
I'd love every Victorian student to be able to connect with their local environment and to do something that they're passionate about in terms of sustainability, and I think this is a program that inspires that sort of leadership.
The future:
Beyond the environment
ResourceSmart Schools has laid a strong foundation. By evolving with educational trends, fostering community collaboration, and empowering young leaders, it has transformed sustainability education in Victoria.
As the world evolves, technology advances, and we grapple with new influences like AI, it’s the chance to connect with the wider world – with nature, peers and the community – that remains a true north for students, teachers and facilitators in the program.
'They don't really want just presentation slides. They want to touch things and look at things. They want the real world.'
'I'll remember having had the opportunity to journey with them, and witness the changes that they've made in their schools. I think that's been a really special thing,' Pia Wrafter says of her facilitator work.
'It’s what you do it for,' says Shannon Sargent, as she reflects on Lilydale Heights winning ResourceSmart School of the Year 2025. 'The kids’ faces, when they called out the school’s name. They were so excited.'
Shannon exemplifies the teachers involved in the ResourceSmart Schools program – hard-working, tenacious and inspiring, putting students first and acting as the driving force to help the program succeed in so many schools like hers.
Secondary students at the Climate Change Education Forum in 2024, co-facilitated by Sustainability Victoria. 'Now that the program is well positioned in Victorian schools,' Peta White says, 'we can think about innovating even more.'
This means increased emphasis on sustainability as more than an environmental issue.
'The work that we're doing now at an international level, we have started talking about changing the idea of working towards understanding environmental issues, to appreciating them as socioecological challenges,' she says.
'This enables us, including our young people, to start to talk about how we need to change as a society. How do we need to reimagine our systems to enable us to do less damage – and to do better?'
20 years of changing what’s possible
For two decades, we have led the way to a sustainable future – cutting waste, driving down emissions, and turning policy into real action across homes, communities, and businesses.
But none of it happens without you, Victoria. Your choices. Your drive. Your belief in a better way.