Kolbe Catholic College has been named the winner of the 2025 City of Rockingham Green Award (School Category), an achievement recognising the outstanding work carried out this year through the Student Executive’s sustainability programme, the CLEAN Initiative (Creating Lasting Environmental Action Now). At the presentation ceremony of this award, the Mayor of Rockingham commended Kolbe, noting that by being recognised with this award, we have become a great example for the entire Rockingham community in being leaders in sustainability and environmental stewardship.
This year, the CLEAN Initiative saw the launch of the Bin Brigade, a movement led and supported by our Year 7 to 12 student leaders who volunteered their lunchtimes to collect stray rubbish off our school grounds. Adorned in colourful capes and equipped with trusty buckets and tongs, we collected over 105kgs of litter, the equivalent of more than 35,000 empty chip packets, helping to transform the culture of waste on campus and model positive environmental habits for the wider school community.
The CLEAN Initiative aimed to promote sustainability through positive branding and visible messaging, with a goal being to associate environmental responsibility not with being tedious and uninteresting, but with the opportunity to make exciting the tasks we carry out in our everyday lives. This objective was strengthened by the CLEAN Initiative Art Competition, coordinated by 2025 Wellbeing Captain Sabatini, which called on creative students to design artwork encouraging care for the environment. Winning designs have already been installed on bins around our grounds, with the remaining set to be rolled out by the end of Term 4 to continue raising awareness through student-created visuals.
The City of Rockingham also acknowledged the importance of our work given our campus is situated in the coastal city we are so lucky to call home, where preventing waste from reaching the ocean is vital in protecting our marine wildlife.
Receiving the City of Rockingham Green Award is a testament to the passion and dedication of all students involved. Their commitment to creating lasting environmental action has not only strengthened our school community, but also contributed to a more sustainable future for Rockingham.