This season, the sustainability committee leveraged the passion of Woolamai’s members to develop a structured team. The committee recruited coordinators for 5 key areas: waste, non-renewables, events, education and communications. Each coordinator has managed a small team of members, providing a streamline for the communication of new ideas. Coordinators attended monthly meetings to discuss the committee’s goals and plans of action. These meetings were filled with a variety of exciting discussions, surrounding how we want our club’s environmental footprint to look in the future. Adrian Koller has supported our committee in an advisory role, providing mentorship when required.

Events

This season we held our first ‘green patrol’ – inspired by other leading SLSCs. Before patrol, the committee hosted a beach clean-up at Woolamai. The team was able to collect a significant amount of plastic from the coastline. After a successful day of patrolling (and plenty of green zinc), the committee provided a sustainably sourced dinner and listened to a talk from a Sea Shepard representative. Our guest speaker was nothing short of inspiring, we came away with a new-found passion and motivation to conserve our oceans. Thank you to Georgie Donnelly for her contributions as coordinator of sustainable events.

Media/Communications

You may have noticed aesthetic infographics infiltrating your social media newsfeeds this past season. Our communications team produced informative tiles each week as part of our ‘Sustainable Sundays’ initiative in the lead-up to and during peak season. These infographics were based on insightful statistics, hints and tips to make small changes in our everyday lives. Thank you to Erin Close for leadership in her role as sustainable communications coordinator, and Jasmine Kuerschner and Izzy bulach for their commitment and contribution as sub-committee members. Fantastic work!

The exciting installation of water-saving shower heads (Funded by Bass Coast Council).
Ensuring we are benefiting from our solar panels as much possible through regular cleaning.
Successfully receiving funding for the installation of external awnings and double-glazed windows.

Thank you to Hugo Richter for his contributions as coordinator of non-renewables.

Education

Our education team, lead by Ellie Ryan and supported by Coco Stafford, was able to deliver a presentation to a variety of bronze camps and other programs within our club. This presentation surrounded how we can reduce our environmental footprint both whilst at Woolamai and when at home. A strong aspect of the sustainability’s committees’ goals surrounded education and awareness. As the saying goes, many drops make an ocean, and small adjustments and changes on an individual level is what creates change at a macro level.

Waste

As you may have noticed, we have a new internal bin-system at the clubhouse. This has allowed us to separate our recycling and green waste, reducing our contribution to landfill. Unfortunately, we currently do not have access to recycling and green waste collection at the clubhouse, and resultantly have been ferrying waste to the residence (our closest collection point). Thank you to all who have actively separated their waste, and to the legends who have been able to assist in ferrying our recycling and green waste. If you have any feedback, or suggestions for future improvements, I would love to hear from you!

We have successfully phased out the use of single use plastic bottles at the clubhouse/nippers/residence, which is a fantastic step forward! Thank you to the nippers team who have been influential in achieving this goal.

Stay tuned for the release of an upcoming new product – hand planes made from recycled plastics. The club has been able to partner with Precious Plastics, a group of students from Monash University who are utilising recycled plastic and a 3D printer to develop custom products. Our hand planes are in their final phase of development, and we’re so excited to make them available for purchase by Woolamai members soon!

Thank you to Lily Harrison, Jordan Kuerschner in their roles as waste coordinators, and Ben Trethewey for his expertise and connection to Precious Plastics.

Junior Sustainability Committee

This season, we implemented a junior sustainability committee, consisting of Grace Murphy, Finn Donaldson, Tom Bair and Harper Shaw. This was a fantastic space for young minds to run free, brainstorming inventive and innovative solutions to environmental concerns. The committee consists of 12-16yr olds, who were largely independent in deciding their committee goals and resultant action plans. The junior committee was able to provide age-appropriate education to our nippers, with a focus on reducing waste, saving water and ecosystems. They pulled off a fantastic education tent, which encouraged participation of our nippers and their families. Members of our junior committee spoke with confidence to a large group of nippers, providing engaging and insightful games/education. Thank you to our junior committee members for their passion and involvement, you’ve been a fantastic asset to the team!

Sustainability Coordinator

Finally, I wanted to say the biggest thank you to our Sustainability Coordinator, Evan Richter. Evan has been instrumental in the reignition and momentum of the sustainability committee. Ev never fails to amaze me in his accountability and commitment to the team, and has put in countless hours of work behind the scenes.

Thank you,

Louise Smith

Director of Sustainability

Sustainability