The Enviro Group was set up in 2019 by Mr Joe Anderson from the maths department and a group of very motivated students, some motivated enough to go vegetarian for the climate! This now even has a name: Climatarian!
The Group was inspired by Greta Thunberg and her dedication to raising awareness of the current climate crisis. With the help of the committee’s student leader, Ciara Sunnex, in Year 11 at the time, and two TPHS staff members, the group began to take action to be more climate-conscious students.
The group kicked off 2019 by taking part in the Student Strike for Climate in Tauranga, which was organised by a Mount College group of students. We also met with Dave Dobbin, (not the singer), a teacher who has been running a similar group at Trident High School in Whakatane where they have made substantial changes around their school.
We soon realised that our school has a huge carbon footprint and generates a lot of waste and that there is plenty that needs to be done, plenty of lessons to be learned, problems solved, and changes made.
Mr Anderson retired at the end of 2019, but has continued to be involved with the group, and we have been helped and mentored by teachers Ms Michelle Jamieson, Ms Ali Rennie and Ms Kate Hills, and Jasrose Mallhi is our new student leader in 2022.
So what have we been up to?