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Ideas
The Sustainable Living Challenge recognises the holistic and interconnected nature of sustainability...so what you choose as your challenge is limited only by your imagination!
Sustainability is a challenge confronting humans and the systems they have created. The breadth of this challenge spans the ways in which human beings produce and consume. A few of these issues include: energy, water, nutrients, materials, food, textiles, buildings, cities, media, military, and so on. Any project that explores how we need to construct, create and adapt these human systems and minimise adverse impacts on natural systems is relevant.
The Sustainable Living Challenge encourages student-centred learning, where students define those challenges of sustainable living that are meaningful to them that they wish to explore further. The program provides a framework to recognise this form of project-based learning.
Click here for examples and case studies of previous awarded projects.
Individual and small group project ideas
The following questions may be a helpful launching pad for your own ideas:
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What is an issue about the world today that you are really passionate about or really worried about? How could you improve that situation?
- What is an issue in your local area that you are concerned about and would like to do something about? Research it and propose a more sustainable future.
- How do we re-design our world to be more sustainable? How do we re-design our buildings, our products, our cities, our transport systems, our economies?
- Can you re-design your school to be more sustainable?
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Put yourself in the shoes of a person living in a poor country or developing nation and find out about their culture and living conditions. How could you improve your quality of life in a way that is beneficial to the environment and your community and is considerate of the global situation?
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How much energy do we use at home, at work and at school? How can we lower any negative impacts? How can we design a strategy for reducing energy demand in our homes or at school? How could we better use renewable energy technology?
- Can the world move beyond fossil fuels and oil? Why is our dependence on fossil fuels such a problem? What are the alternatives?
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How can we reduce dependence on private car travel? What alternatives are there that people will really want to use? What alternate strategies for personal mobility and community based transport exist? How can you redesign the system?
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How good is eco-tourism for the environment? Can resorts in fragile environments really have a sufficiently low impact? How do you design a low impact resort?
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How can the need for food and products be balanced against the need to maintain the environment for future generations? What is sustainable agriculture?
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How do the materials and goods produced by our society affect our health? Is it possible to produce non-toxic materials within today's production methods and expectations of standards? How can a new product (building, clothing, furniture etc) use natural or recycled materials?
Remember you do not need to try and 'solve' the problems! It is important that we understand the true nature and context of an issue, before we can start to address it and move towards a sustainable future. It is all about the process of exploration and inquiry.
Large group and whole school project ideas
The following questions may be a helpful launching pad for your own ideas:
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Create a permaculture garden to produce some food for your canteen. Compost scraps from the school and from your student’s homes. Use this as an active education program in agriculture, biology or even mathematics. Register with the Sustainable Living Challenge and all your students involved can receive certificates for their involvement.
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Send in your school environmental management plan detailing how you intend to reduce your environmental impact and work towards becoming a ‘sustainable school’. Get certificates for your student environment committee members and reward their hard work by presenting this at an assembly. Receive a certificate to place in your school reception area that recognises the role the school is playing in creating a sustainable future.
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Detail how you have become active in your local area with a revegetation project in a local catchment or creek. Alternatively, you could create similar campaigns that address local biodiversity and sustainable consumption issues (e.g. water and energy). Talk to your local council about getting some assistance and use your involvement in the Sustainable Living Challenge as a tool to motivate students to become more deeply involved.
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Tell us how you have combined a range of initiatives around the school from recycling to water harvesting and integrated environmental education (education for sustainability) concepts wherever possible in the curriculum.
