Home > News and Events > 2025 > June > A lifelong love of the environment

Sustainability Coordinator at St Monica’s College, Epping, Ben Coleman is a finalist in tomorrow’s ResourceSmart Schools Awards for Teacher of the Year – Secondary.

This recognition is a fitting celebration of Ben’s passion for his work, and his dedication to enabling students to take direction of environmental projects at the school and beyond. Student voice is at the centre of these programs.
‘Each year the students and I develop a range of new sustainability projects based on student interests, and the needs that arise within our school grounds and community’, he said.

Ben has a background in zoology and interest in biodiversity, has spent time teaching in the Kimberley and experienced learning on Country. He understands the importance of connecting to nature and tries to pass this on to his students:
Recent indigenous grassland plantings have resulted in the exciting arrival of blue-banded bees on both the Dalton Road and Davisson Street campuses. To ensure their survival and successful reproduction, we researched and created signage and appropriate nestboxes for these and other native bees and pollinators.

Ongoing projects [at the school] include a number of energy, water and waste reduction strategies, as well as biodiversity improvement strategies. We compost to reduce waste and improve soil quality for veggie and native gardens. We grow a variety of produce for our sustainability cooking groups (paddock to plate and farm to fork), as well as the food technology department, saving on packaging and transport.

The wetlands revegetation, chicken coop and native animal room continue to be our most popular sustainability projects, allowing students to develop their connection to nature in the hope that they develop a lifelong love of the environment and thus the desire to live sustainable lives.

Sustainability programs at St Monica’s College include:

• A project to improve soil quality by adding compost, reducing compaction, and planting fruit trees and a bush tucker garden.
• The native animal room is a popular EnviroFriends activity in the mornings before school starts. Students gather to feed and clean up after the animals.
• Every year, the students plant more than 500 native plants. Recently, their focus has been on endangered volcanic grassland communities for pollinators and shrubs for small woodland birds.
• During each visit to the local wetlands, the students clean up to ensure that no plastic enters the Darebin Creek or wetlands.
• A once-a-term ride-to-school day encourages active and sustainable transport.
• Biodiversity audits find a wide variety of organisms for the students to learn about, such as water scorpions and water beetles.
• A regular ‘farm to fork’ sustainability cooking group is held on the senior campus.
• A ‘paddock to plate’ sustainability cooking club on the junior campus uses school-grown produce.

Ben connects the school’s environment and sustainability efforts with partners like ResourceSmart Schools, the Darebin Creek Management Committee and the City of Whittlesea.
St Monica’s College is also a finalist in the Campus Infrastructure and Operations School of the Year category. The Awards presentation is being held on Thursday 5 June at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, as part of World Environment Day.
For news about other Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) finalists, see these stories about Kolbe Catholic College, Greenvale Lakes, and Our Lady of the Nativity School, Aberfeldie.