Think.Act.Green
The T.A.G program inspires leadership amongst students by encouraging them to engage with important environmental issues, take ownership of and responsibility for their local environment, and gain valuable knowledge and experience as young leaders.
Project Overview
Think.Act.Green (T.A.G) aims to increase environmental awareness amongst Victorian secondary school students and empower them through the development of professional skills such as financial literacy, research, analysis and evaluation. With environmental sustainability an issue of increasing local and global significance, Think.Act.Green has established an environmental program in many Victorian high schools to inspire our next generation of leaders to seek sustainable solutions to our environmental problems.
Think.Act.Green has enlisted the support of companies operating in the energy and resources sectors such as Shell, Yarra Valley Water, Origin Energy, Long Life Lighting, Earth Systems and others, to develop a series of seminars, skills-based tutorials, an environmental conference and an inter-school competition. Following a successful pilot project in 2009, nine secondary schools are now actively participating in 2010, with 13 schools anticipated for the 2011 program.
The program requires student-led teams from each school to develop a proposal outlining an innovative way they can increase environmental sustainability at their schools. In the final phase of the program, students present their proposals to a judging panel composed of leading business consultants and prominent figures in the environmental and non-profit sectors. The team with the most creative and viable proposal is awarded a monetary prize to implement their project. The 2009 Think.Act.Green winners, Presbyterian Ladies' College, successfully implemented their grey-water system proposal this year that filters water used in their boarding-house showers and disperses it to the nearby school gardens.
The Think.Act.Green program inspires leadership amongst students by encouraging them to engage with important environmental issues, take ownership of and responsibility for their local environment, and gives them valuable exposure to knowledge and experience of being young leaders.