06 DEC 2021 Plan for the Planet Virtual Conference

Kolbe Catholic College has been involved in the Young Person’s Plan for the Planet since the pilot program was established in Australia in 2017. The program has continued to grow each year, but the focus has remained the same with the call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and improve the lives and prospects of everyone, everywhere.

From Wednesday December 1st to Friday December 3rd, students from Year 7-10 attended the Plan for the Planet Virtual Conference. The focus of the conference was to learn about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The goals are a collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a "blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all".

The completely student run and led Youth Response Conference held in Townsville was a major success. With the opportunity for students to create projects around the SDG of their choice and develop an SDG project that could be implemented in their school or community. These projects then went into the running to win some prize money to get their projects off the ground.

Congratulations to our Year 7 and Year 9/10 team who each won a $1000 grant to get their projects started in 2022. The Year 7s are intending to add plants into classrooms to maximise students’ learning capabilities, as enclosed rooms with no air flow increases the carbon dioxide levels, affecting students' learning ability. Students intend to measure the carbon dioxide levels before and after, whilst also investigating the impacts on student learning. The Year 9/10 team are planning on reducing the waste that goes to landfill from Kolbe. They have met with Mr Dean from the Property team to gather data and collaborate on ways they can reduce the time Property spent on waste and also set targets to reduce the amount of kilograms sent to landfill each week.

We acknowledge the hard work of all the students who gave up their first day of the school holidays to work together to make a difference for our community. We look forward to sharing updates on the progress of their projects in 2022.