Green Jam 2023

On Monday the 14th of August a team of Wastewise and Kaitiaki members and Education for Sustainability students headed across the road to the Zoo for Green Jam 2023, our annual sustainability conference. Myself and my fellow Wastewise Leaders Daisy and Lucian, organised the event this year with lots of help from our awesome Wastewise kaiako Ms Hickey. As my main job was contacting schools to invite their students to come, I will say it was a BIG relief when kids wearing various uniforms, after being greeted by Zariya and Enzo, flooded the Zoo Domes at 9:30 to the sound chamber music played by Mathew and myself. 

After the karakia led by Monalisa and Maihinerangi, the day began with a presentation from conservation educator PJ from the Zoo. He explained to us how the Zoo has changed over the past 100 years and the many ways that the Zoo promotes and uses sustainable practices in its day-to-day tasks. After this, we were lucky enough to be joined by representatives from many different organisations, including Sustainable Coastlines, Auckland Transport, For The Love of Bees, Urban Ark (trapping and weed ID), Whitebait Connection, Cycling and Sustainability, EcoMatters, Food Rescue and The Compost Collective.

Two students from Waiōrea; Arahi with help from Mahinerangi, ran a particularly popular flax weaving workshop as well as two postgraduate psychology students from Auckland University who ran their own workshop on the Psychology of Sustainability. Each of these presenters ran half-hour workshops throughout the day.

I got to attend the Auckland Transport, Compost Collective and Whitebait Connection workshops and I enjoyed all of them and learned a lot. One of my biggest takeaways was that you can make a compost bin out of just about anything – including old washing machine cylinders! Getting to see a collection of live invertebrates caught from a water sample from Meola Creek was another highlight. 

After walking around the Zoo during our lunch break, we all came back for the panel discussion hosted by Huia and Mahinaarangi. We were lucky to have nine different people on the panel this year, and we had a long line of questions from students directed at specific organisations as well as more general questions about how they could help enhance sustainability in their own lives. It was great to see students from Year 6 all the way up to Year 13 asking unique and insightful questions to our guests. 

Overall it was a really inspiring and interesting day. We were all super happy to see it all come together. Thank you so much to Ms Hickey, the Wastewise and Kaitiaki teams and all the other students and teachers who contributed to making it an awesome day!

Zylah Vivace Year 13, Wastewise Co-Leader