Palmerston North Girls’ High School reaching the heights of sustainability

Horizons Regional Council is excited to announce that Palmerston North Girls’ High School (PNGHS) has become the first secondary school in the region to reach the Enviroschools Green Gold level.

Enviroschools is a national programme that encourages creating a sustainable world that support and empower young people to plan, design and implement sustainability projects that are important to them and their communities. Horizons implements the programme around the region which is part funded by city and district councils.
 
Horizons senior environmental educator Sarah Williams says that reaching Green Gold status means sustainability is central to all decisions made within a school/centre.
 
“PNGHS have joined only 10 other secondary schools in New Zealand to reach Green Gold which is a huge achievement,” she says.
 
“Sustainability has been bubbling away at the school for a long time, being picked up by past students and teachers who have kept running with it, weaving it into different parts of the school from the curriculum, to school policies and procurement processes.
 
“This week we had the pleasure of attending an event hosted at PNGHS to celebrate their achievement, which is a result of hard mahi done by lots of people over a long period of time. Dr Heather Meikle, who is now one of our Enviroschools facilitators, was one such person and has been integral to the schools journey over the last 30 years, and summed it up perfectly – it takes a team to make the dream.”
 
Students throughout the day noted that sustainability is not just about planting trees, it is everywhere and cultural sustainability is a big part of the PNGHS culture.
 
PNGHS sustainability coordinator Jenny Slade says "although this is a milestone it also symbolises a beginning of a new chapter in our sustainability journey.”
 
“There is no end point to an Enviroschools journey. The question of ‘where to next?’ is always asked and PNGHS have plenty of ideas on where to go deeper in their sustainability mahi,” says Ms Williams. 
 
For more information about the Enviroschools programme you can go to https://www.horizons.govt.nz/HRC/media/Media/Environmental%20Ed/Enviroschools-Snapshot-Booklet-2022.pdf