The 2026 Environment Grant Winners have been announced!
Congratulations to all the winning schools and services.
Early childhood education and care
Mother Teresa Early Learning Centre, Harrison ACT: Ngunnawal Native
We plan to design and install a native Indigenous garden featuring Ngunnawal native plants, guided by a local Ngunnawal man and current ELC parent. The triangular garden will feature Kangaroo Grass at each point, with three painted totem poles as a centre piece, decorated with flag colours, geckos, rainbow serpents and other cultural motifs. Hop Bush, Cauliflower Bush and Common Correa will provide habitat and seasonal interest. The garden will support students’ learning about Aboriginal culture, strengthen community connections, enhance biodiversity, attract pollinators and create a meaningful outdoor learning space for the school.
Primary schools
St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School, Kogarah: Project Waste War
Project Waste War empowers students to lead environmental change by dramatically reducing school landfill waste. To achieve this, student leaders will build and manage an on-site worm farm, composting system, and improved recycling network. This student-driven initiative provides hands-on sustainability education and leadership roles for students, lowers overall waste management costs for the school, and diverts organic waste from landfills to enrich our local soil. By putting student voice into action, Project Waste War transforms everyday food scraps into a sustainable future for our school community.
St. Laurence’s Parish School, Forbes: Wiradjuri Bush Food Garden
The garden becomes part of our broader environmental education strategy, not a one-off activity. It embeds the Sustainability and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures cross-curriculum priorities across K–6 units, giving every class a hands-on, on-Country learning experience each term. Students learn water-wise gardening, composting, mulching and native planting for biodiversity, alongside Wiradjuri knowledge of caring for Country as a long-standing sustainability practice that will continue to inform how we teach sustainability across the school.
Secondary schools
Trinity Anglican College, Albury: Poop Reloop
Poop Reloop.
Anyone who runs a 3D printer knows the term. Every print throws off failed attempts, rafts, supports and purge, and the maker community calls that waste “poops”. It is a growing problem in schools, it is not accepted in kerbside recycling, and almost nobody is doing anything with it.
“Reloop” is the answer to it: the waste goes back into the loop rather than into the bin. Our students shred it, melt it down and make something new, then do it again.
Through ongoing fundraising from our 10c bottle and can collections, students bought their own shredder and already turn school plastic into pressed sheets and hand-cut keyrings. They have $1,200 banked toward the next machine. Poop Reloop takes them further. A hand-cranked benchtop extruder will let students melt 3D printer waste, a fast-growing school stream nobody recycles, with bottle caps into recycled pens they design and sell, building entrepreneurial skills and a real circular economy. Rather than eco-anxiety, students see what their hands can change. This grant accelerates work already underway, and we will share everything so other schools can follow.
K-12 schools
Korowal School, Hazelbrook: Spring into life: Dam restoration and biodiversity project
The project aims to restore the school’s historically significant spring-fed dam and surrounding landscape into a safe, biodiverse and educational environment. This will be achieved through invasive weed removal, sediment and erosion management, water-quality improvements, revegetation with suitable native species and habitat restoration. Students will be involved in hands-on environmental learning, gaining practical knowledge of biodiversity, conservation and water management while developing a stronger connection with the natural environment. The project will provide the school with an enhanced outdoor learning space and valuable environmental asset. It will also improve biodiversity, habitat, water quality and ecosystem resilience, benefiting the wider community and future generations.
Delany College, Granville: Campus cultivation: Expanding our vegetable garden
Delany College, Granville is a Catholic High School – our students hail from diverse backgrounds. 77% of students live in households where English isn’t primarily spoken. With an ICSEA score of 996, many students live in financially stressed communities and don’t have access to adequate nutrition. According to the NSW Council of Social Services 31.4% of residents in South Granville live in poverty. This grant would help our school expand the existing vegetable garden, while increasing capacity to grow more healthy produce on school grounds. We’ll use this grant to purchase supplies and equipment needed to maintain a robust vegetable garden.
For further information please contact environment@ieu.asn.au.
