Sustainability - Notre Dame College Shepparton

Sustainability at our College

Notre Dame College takes great pride in its sustainability student group, Terra Tomodachi. ‘Terra’ means ‘Earth’ in Italian, and ‘Tomodachi’ means ‘Friends’ in Japanese. The group meets once a fortnight to plan and advance sustainability initiatives, participate in relevant field trips and develop their knowledge of best practice care for the earth.

The college has appointed a Sustainability Coordinator and Sustainability Student Leaders to guide this group. If you have a passion for sustainability and would like to be more involved in this part of college life, please contact one of our sustainability leaders.

Mr Phil Guthrie - Sustainability Coordinator

phil.guthrie@notredame.vic.edu.au

Grace Lewin

Sustainability Leader 2025

Saliha Ozen

Sustainability Leader 2025

Sustainability News

Notre Dame College (Knight St and Emmaus) have achieved their second star on the journey to becoming a five-star Resource Smart Schools sustainability school. The second star was awarded for our work in managing and reducing waste. This comes on top of the first star awarded for meeting the minimum general requirements of becoming a Resource Smart School.

Inspired by members of our sustainability team, Terra Tomodachi, pictured here with our sustainability leader Phil Guthrie, the College is now working hard on achieving its water, energy and biodiversity stars.

If you have any ideas or would like to support Notre Dame on its sustainability journey, we would love to hear from you!

Sustainability Coordinator Phil Guthrie has been doing the rounds at house assemblies promoting our dream for a 'litter free' College through responsible waste disposal.

Click to watch

Sustainability Leaders

Our Sustainability Coordinator is supported by our 2025 Sustainability Leaders, Grace Lewin and Saliha Ozen.

The Sustainability Leaders promote and give students a voice to sustainability within and beyond the College community. They will also be active members of Terra Tomadarchi.

Responsibilities include:

having the ability to enthuse the College community in the area of sustainability and to take a leading role in this area within the College.
demonstrating creativity and energy in the area of student involvement in sustainability projects and events.
keeping the school body informed about sustainability initiatives within the College via assemblies, the College Newsletter and social media, and the daily bulletins.
coordinating and/or assisting in various sustainability initiatives/projects within the College.

As of 2020 Notre Dame College has made a commitment to be more sustainable in all management practices throughout the college. To help with this endeavor, the college became part of the ResourceSmart Schools program offered by Sustainability Victoria. The aim of which is to help schools embed sustainability across all facilities, communities, and curriculum and help save resources and money.

Through ResourceSmart the college is committed to progress through the 5 Stars Program and become a Leadership School in sustainability. Each of the 5 Stars has a specific requirement for completion and requires staff and students to undertake initiatives and activities to help achieve common goals.

The main focus of the college throughout 2020-2023 is the Waste Module, with the goal being to help educate the college (staff, students and the community) about waste and how to reduce our landfill as well as the associated costs.

Much has happened:

2020 saw a Bin Audit of the Emmaus campus where the bins were counted and examined for contamination. The results were promising but showed us that further education was required. To watch the video, CLICK HERE.
2021 Knight St campus completed their own Bin Audit, and it revealed that a complete overhaul of the practices on this campus is required. To watch the video, CLICK HERE.
2022 we also saw some new bins arriving at the College, CLICK HERE. These have been placed strategically around the college with clear, consistent signage to encourage responsible disposal and increasing recycling.
2023 was a highly active and positive year with Terra Tomodachi students attending a Youth Congress on Climate Change in Shepparton and subsequently developing a range of new sustainability project ideas for NDC, including a herb garden at Knight Street and a secondhand clothing market.
2024 we are well into 2024 and the team have been doing some fantastic work, our latest project involved some new bins being placed around the College CLICK HERE to find out what that's all about.

The Terra Tomodachi Sustainability Garden

Our Terra Tomodachi students in conjunction with our gardening team have created a new sustainability garden at the front of the hospitality complex on Knight Street campus, south side.

Terra Tomadachi Thrift Shop

Is your school uniform looking a bit run down? Is that growth spurt starting to stretch things a little? Would a couple of extra items ease the washing schedule?

Check out these great prices for all your second-hand uniform needs at Notre Dame College’s very own Terra Tomodachi Thrift Shop. The shop is open every Wednesday from 3:30pm - 4:15pm or email phillip.guthrie@notredame.vic.edu.au for more information.

Second Hand Uniform Donations

Are you done with your Notre Dame College uniform? Would you like to donate to two fantastic causes, both striving to make a big difference in the world? Notre Dame College’s newly opened Terra Tomodachi Thrift Shop is seeking donations of old school uniforms or other casual clothes in good condition to help stock their new venture.

Proceeds from the Thrift Shop will be shared jointly between Terra Tomodachi sustainability initiatives and Caritas Australia. All donations can be left in the blue bin at the front of the Youth Ministry Hub or dropped directly to the Thrift Shop during trading hours each Wednesday from 3:30pm - 4:15pm. Email phillip.guthrie@notredame.vic.edu.au for more information.