What does sustainability mean to you?

Do you think it means the same thing to the rest of your team, the children, families or others out in your community? 

You might be surprised…😲

What I know to be true, is that sustainability can mean something different to everyone…

I’ve asked hundreds of people that question, and I’ve had hundreds of different responses.

But why..? I hear your inner 4 year old ask…🤔

Let’s think about that for a moment…

Sustainability is a concept.  It’s big and complicated (well, to most of us anyway).  It’s not clearly defined.  It’s more about “the vibe”...

It’s not a list of criteria or specific actions we can check off a list.

How we define and understand sustainability is influenced by things like our experiences (what we’ve done), education (what we’ve learnt), values (what is important to us), culture (how we see and value the world around us and our place in it) and context (where we come from).

It’s emotive.  For some reason the word sustainabi...

What’s the ONE THING that keeps sustainability leaders stuck more so than anything else?

Lack of ENGAGEMENT…

I always ask people what their biggest sustainability challenge is and more often than not their reply is the same - getting others on board… Getting others interested... Having to do it all on my own...

Many of us spend months or years spinning our wheels, getting nowhere fast… often just chipping away, barely scratching the surface on our own.

It can be hard to understand why… Surely everyone knows we should be doing more… Just watch the news once in a while…

Maybe that’s the problem…

Sustainability can feel overwhelming, heavy and depressing.  It has an image problem.

Many of us feel helpless and hopeless.  What I do surely won’t make any difference… 

Many of us feel like we don’t know enough about it, lacking confidence, worried we’ll look silly, either in front of our colleagues, or worse, the children!

Then there’s the usual chestnuts - I don’t have time, resour...

Earth Day is coming up on 22 April, and it’s Nature Play week, closely followed by World Environment Day, National Tree Day, Biodiversity Month, National Recycling Week, NAIDOC Week, Water Week…. The list goes on…

Lots of people ask me what the point of celebrating all these days are, and is it helpful in terms of actually embedding sustainability.  Isn’t every day Earth Day!?

My answer is, it depends…

If you do a few things on the day, and that’s it, probably a token gesture and not really moving the needle in terms of embedding sustainability.

BUT…

If you’re strategic, purposeful and intentional about how you celebrate and what you celebrate then that’s a whole other story.

So here’s some things to keep in mind…

Is it relevant or meaningful for your community or program?  If you’re celebrating an event just to fill a hole in your program or you think you should, you might want to ask yourself if that’s a good use of your time, energy and resources.  If it’s not meaningful to y...

It feels like now is a great time to be focused on improving your sustainability practices and bringing sustainability to life for children.

It can feel overwhelming.  It’s an important role you’re playing as an educator working with young children, and it seems that with the recent changes to the EYLF and MTOP Frameworks, others are beginning to see the potential impacts you can make too!

Let's unpack some of the changes to the frameworks as they relate to sustainability, and what they might mean for you and your service.

Let’s dive in…

The Frameworks have expanded their definition of sustainability.  Previously the focus seemed to be on the environmental aspects of sustainability - encouraging children to show respect for the environment, connections to nature, use of natural materials, etc.

The revised Frameworks define sustainability as:

Sustainability: seeking to meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the needs of future generations (Brundtland Report ...

Have you ever felt like you're walking this sustainability road alone...?  I certainly have.  There seems to be a distinct lack of interest from anyone else and you feel like your spinning your wheels and not getting very far.

I've spoken to lots of educators who feel this way.  So, you're not really alone!  There are lots of others out there, plodding along doing the best they can with what they've got.

So what do you do when it's just you?  How can you still make a contribution and keep moving towards embedding sustainability?

Here's a few ideas of things you can do:

• Keep a positive mindset, others will join you on the journey, eventually!
• Lead a sustainability project in your service.  Maybe its the collection of plastic lids for 'lids for kids' or introducing a compost bin or herb garden.
• Celebrate sustainability events like World Environment Day, National Tree Day, Recycling Week, or NAIDOC Week.
• Identify the sustainability themes in children's play or interests and exten
...