Kids plan for a sustainable future

Over 600 primary and secondary school students visited Docklands last month for the 2012 Melbourne Water International Kids Teaching Kids Conference.

The three-day conference brought together local and international students from more than 70 schools and focused on engaging the younger generation in the management of catchments, rivers, oceans and coasts into the future.

Students were involved in a range of sustainability activities run by the Kids Teaching Kids team alongside Docklands-based businesses and organisations including Melbourne Water, Places Victoria and Lend Lease.

Activities included painting on the hoarding of the developing Docklands Library and Community Centre and making vegie patches in the community garden.

Students from Albert Park College also ran a vertical schools workshop after being mentored by Places Victoria earlier this year.

The workshop aimed to generate ideas for vertical schools that incorporated energy and water sustainability.

“What better way to understand what a school of the future might look like than to ask the people who will use them,” Places Victoria CEO Sam Sangster said.