Sustainability Week 2025
Learn it. Live it. Love it
Now in its second edition, this year’s Sustainability Week takes a holistic approach, exploring everything from waste and biodiversity to community engagement, social equity, and health and wellbeing. For the first time, the week will be led by our community, for our community. Be inspired by your peers, take meaningful action, and make this your first stop on the journey to real sustainability impact.
What’s on this week
- Grab a fully serviced, ready-to-ride bike from $180 at the Brainwave Bikes Stall—plus helmets, locks, and lights. Find them on Wednesday and Friday (9am–4pm) at Ross Mackay Courtyard, and on Thursday at the UMSU Thrift Market. You can also donate your old bike or get a quick tune-up!
- The Melbourne Beekeeping Club stall will be at Southbank Campus on Tuesday 16 September, 12–2pm in the Hub foyer (Building 863). Honey sales support the University’s beehives.
- Dive into the week-long Bioblitz, an interactive "How Do You Choose?" installation in the FBE Foyer and the SMART Consumers x CLIMARTE exhibition in the MSD Atrium - running all week long!
- Craving a coffee? Professor’s Walk Cafe is joining this week! Bring your reusable cup and enjoy a 20-cent discount. They will donate your savings to the Monash Children’s Hospital.
Lottie Dalziel from Banish
We are pleased to welcome Lottie Dalziel, founder of Banish—a platform dedicated to empowering Australians with the knowledge and tools to live more sustainably—and the Banish Recycling and Diversion (BRAD) Program, which diverted over one million pieces of plastic waste from landfill in 2024 alone, as a featured panellist during Sustainability Week.
Named NSW Young Australian of the Year in 2023 and recognised in Forbes 30 Under 30 for her contributions to sustainability and entrepreneurship, Lottie is a leading voice in the field. Don’t miss the chance to hear from her as part of our Just and Circular Economy panel on Tuesday 16 September.
With over 30 events across five themed days, Sustainability Week is your chance to connect, learn, and take action for a better future. Run by our vibrant community, each day offers something unique, from health and wellbeing to circular economy, climate leadership, healthy ecosystems, and communities of sustainability learners and practitioners.
Click on each event to learn more and register.
Monday 15 September
Health and wellbeing
Explore how sustainability supports our mental, physical, and social wellbeing. From nature walks to sound baths, panels, and creative events, there’s something for everyone to connect, reflect, and recharge.
- Ask me anything panel: Health and wellbeing
- Industry panel: "Sustainability challenges in production and consumption" and interactive exhibition: “How do you choose?”
- Guided Bioblitz
- Measuring your biodiversity footprint workshop
- System Garden music therapy
- Healing places within healthcare and beyond workshop
- UMSU speed friending
Tuesday 16 September
Just and circular economy
Discover how sustainability intersects with justice, procurement, and waste. From thought-provoking panels and interactive workshops to hands-on activities and inspiring showcases, you’ll learn how circularity and ethical practices can shape a fairer, more sustainable future.
- Ask me anything panel: Just and circular economy
- Reconnecting with nature: an ecological mindset in leadership
- Weaving sustainability and responsibility into procurement
- Melbourne Beekeeping Club stall (see above)
- Sustainability Fest
- Sustainability in Laboratories Hub - Official launch
- Sustainable succulent workshop
- Supporting nature in the urban jungle
- Sustainability and circularity: Complex ideas made simple
- Corporate careers in sustainability panel
Wednesday 17 September
Climate leadership
Celebrate the many ways we can lead on climate action. From planting and low-waste cooking to student-led showcases and thought-provoking panels, this day brings together practical skills, bold ideas, and inspiring voices to shape a more sustainable and climate-resilient future.
- Ask me anything panel: Climate leadership
- Plant the campus green
- Repurpose Runway workshop
- Low-waste cooking workshop
- Social sustainability with decoloniality student project showcase
- Sustainable finance futures forum
- Bike education and care workshop
- Daybreak Board Game Session
- Students in sustainable healthcare showcase
- Brainwave Bikes stall (see above)
Thursday 18 September
Healthy ecosystems
Immerse yourself in a day dedicated to nurturing our natural environment. Join activities that inspire connection to nature—from building bee hotels and journaling outdoors to hands-on gardening, smoothie making, and community markets. These events highlight how caring for ecosystems supports our wellbeing.
- Ask me anything panel: Healthy ecosystems
- Native bee wisdom and bee hotel class
- Harvest and blend smoothie workshop
- AI meets sustainability debate: You decide!
- UMSU Enviro and UMSU Welfare thrift market & Brainwave Bikes stall
- Game on for climate action
- Introduction to nature journaling workshop
- Community Garden working bee
Friday 19 September
Community of sustainability learners and practitioners
Join a day that brings people together to reflect, share, and grow as a community. Through insightful panels and powerful documentary screenings, these events invite us to deepen our understanding, learn from each other, and stay inspired in our collective journey toward a more sustainable future.
- Ask me anything panel: Community of sustainability learners and practitioners
- Documentary screening – David Attenborough: Ocean
- Documentary screening - Power of activism
- Documentary screening – The Giants
- Documentary screening – Climate Changers
- Brainwave Bikes stall (see above)
- Sustainability Week wrap-up party