Sustainability - Tea Bags, Socks and Ecochallenges

In 2017 The Academy in partnership with the Office of Sustainability received approval to join the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Youth Network. The SDSN Youth Network was established by the UN in 2015 to empower young people to engage with the sustainable development goals. To date there are over 100 students in the Facebook group and two main projects.

The ‘Tea Bag Project’ aims to collect tea bags for Original T Bag Design - a social enterprise was established 20 years ago to support and empower women and men in Townships in Hout Bay, South Africa. They use the dried tea bags to produce a range of high quality, innovative, handmade products. This provides self-employment in the townships and a means of income. This is addressing SDG’s 1 of No Poverty and SDG 8 of Decent Work and Economic Growth by supporting enterprise in the townships and SDG 12 of Responsible Consumption by innovative reuse of a products. These projects bring Academy students together from across disciplines to make a difference, check out the T bag designs website (opens in a new window) for more information.

The ‘Sock Syndicate’ is another student run project which aims to help Sydney's homeless by providing them with fresh socks and raising awareness of homelessness, through the sale of socks. Students are also being encouraged to participate in the ‘EcoChallenge’ run through the North West Earth Institute, in Oregon, USA. This challenge encourages teams to undertake a series of sustainability challenges focused on water, waste, health and transportation.

Connect and Collaborate with Jen Dollin, Office of Sustainability

Learning Futures.NOW. Issue 2.

-November 2017-