On 13 February, six members of the Otago Girls’ environment group were invited to attend the senior student Otago Regional Enviroschools' hui.

Students from across Dunedin and Otago were invited to learn about ‘Collaboration’ and ways to better communicate our ideas with people. We were put into groups randomly so that we could meet new people and share our ideas about sustainability and how to get people in our school community involved.

We also had a group of guest speakers talk to us about their organisations and how they get people involved and get their projects off the ground. From all the speakers I got one main message; if you want to get people interested in your project you have to talk to them face to face. Social media has created a global platform for people to communicate their ideas but people will always respond to face to face communication better than via social media.

In the afternoon, we got the opportunity to visit Cargill Enterprises, which is a business which focuses on providing work and training for people with disabilities. They had so many different projects running at the same time including computer and e-waste recycling, making garden furniture and the memorial benches around the city, making hotel bedding, packaging merchandise and food, and my personal favourite: sanitising and repackaging the headsets from Air New Zealand flights. It was amazing to see so many differing projects being managed simultaneously, while they focus on environmental conservation and providing training opportunities for their workers. We also learned an important lesson at Cargill Enterprises - communication is key when you are trying to make a big project a reality.

On 18 February, Otago Girls’ High School was given the opportunity to hold our own hui. Members of our Enviroschools group and staff went to the Dunedin City Council. We brainstormed ideas on what Otago Girls’ needs to focus on for 2019 and ultimately we decided that we would focus on minimising waste and developing a better waste management system. Stay tuned for updates throughout the year.