By Alex Thomas

This is the sixth edi­tion of a sev­en-part se­ries fea­tur­ing sec­ondary school stu­dents pro­vid­ing their thoughts on En­vi­ron­men­tal, So­cial, and Gov­er­nance (ESG) is­sues as part of the HAR­CON Na­tion­al Youth Sus­tain­abil­i­ty and ESG Pi­lot Project

Nes­tled in the ver­dant hills of Mo­ka, Trinidad, Trin­i­ty Col­lege stands at the fore­front of a trans­for­ma­tive en­vi­ron­men­tal jour­ney where its Mo­ka ini­tia­tive, a com­pre­hen­sive sus­tain­abil­i­ty pro­gramme guid­ed by the HAR­CON Na­tion­al Youth Sus­tain­abil­i­ty En­vi­ron­ment So­cial and Gov­er­nance (NY­SESG) Pi­lot Project and built on four foun­da­tion­al pil­lars: a sus­tain­able gar­den, rain­wa­ter har­vest­ing, com­post­ing, and a com­mit­ment to pro­vide sus­tain­abil­i­ty ed­u­ca­tion and lead­er­ship to the stu­dents of Mo­ka. Among these, the es­tab­lish­ment of a sus­tain­able gar­den ecosys­tem is both sym­bol­ic and prac­ti­cal: a liv­ing class­room, a food source, and a bio­di­ver­si­ty haven that re­flects the heart of the school’s green vi­sion.

Root­ed in pur­pose

The choice to de­vel­op a sus­tain­able gar­den ecosys­tem at Trin­i­ty is far from ar­bi­trary. It re­flects a clear, de­lib­er­ate in­ten­tion to re­con­nect ed­u­ca­tion with the nat­ur­al world and re­spond proac­tive­ly to the en­vi­ron­men­tal chal­lenges fac­ing both Trinidad and To­ba­go and the glob­al com­mu­ni­ty. Po­si­tioned in the lush hills of Mo­ka, the school is unique­ly sit­u­at­ed to har­ness the nat­ur­al re­sources of the en­vi­ron­ment, the rain­fall and fer­tile soil mak­ing it an ide­al site for a mod­el gar­den that ex­em­pli­fies both eco­log­i­cal har­mo­ny and pro­duc­tiv­i­ty.

The gar­den will serve a va­ri­ety of in­ter-con­nect­ed pur­pos­es. Most tan­gi­bly, it will pro­vide fresh, nu­tri­tious pro­duce for the school cafe­te­ria, re­duc­ing the in­sti­tu­tion’s re­liance on im­port­ed food and low­er­ing its car­bon foot­print. But be­yond its har­vest, the gar­den will be an ever-evolv­ing class­room, an im­mer­sive space where stu­dents can ex­plore sub­jects like bi­ol­o­gy, chem­istry, agri­cul­ture, and en­vi­ron­men­tal sci­ence through hands-on learn­ing. Cou­pled with this, the so­cial en­gage­ment with the com­mu­ni­ty will be har­nessed with their in­volve­ment and spon­sor­ship.

A hub for bio­di­ver­si­ty and re­silience

Cre­at­ing a gar­den in Mo­ka’s hill­side ter­rain al­lows Trin­i­ty Col­lege to pro­mote bio­di­ver­si­ty in a con­trolled yet dy­nam­ic set­ting. By plant­i­ng a va­ri­ety of fruits, veg­eta­bles, herbs and na­tive plants, the gar­den will at­tract pol­li­na­tors, en­cour­age soil health, and cre­ate a minia­ture ecosys­tem teem­ing with life. This bio­di­ver­si­ty is not just about ecol­o­gy but it is about re­silience.

The in­te­gra­tion of the gar­den in­to the broad­er Mo­ka ini­tia­tive en­hances this re­silience. Rain­wa­ter har­vest­ing sys­tems will col­lect and store wa­ter for ir­ri­ga­tion, re­duc­ing strain on mu­nic­i­pal sup­plies and en­sur­ing the gar­den re­mains vi­able dur­ing the dry sea­son in Trinidad and To­ba­go’s in­stance. Mean­while, or­gan­ic waste from the school and the gar­den it­self will be fed in­to the com­post­ing fa­cil­i­ty, pro­duc­ing rich, nat­ur­al fer­tilis­er that will nour­ish the soil and close the loop on waste.

Cul­ti­vat­ing a Cul­ture of sus­tain­abil­i­ty

Per­haps the most sig­nif­i­cant im­pact of the sus­tain­able gar­den will be in the realm of ed­u­ca­tion. In an age of grow­ing en­vi­ron­men­tal un­cer­tain­ty, it is no longer enough to teach sus­tain­abil­i­ty in the­o­ry. The Mo­ka gar­den gives stu­dents a di­rect con­nec­tion to the earth and its cy­cles, an un­der­stand­ing that can­not be repli­cat­ed in text­books. Stu­dents will gain first­hand ex­pe­ri­ence in plant­i­ng, nur­tur­ing, har­vest­ing, and even mar­ket­ing their pro­duce, equip­ping them with prac­ti­cal skills and a deep ap­pre­ci­a­tion for the in­ter­con­nect­ed­ness of hu­man and nat­ur­al sys­tems.

Through this stu­dent-led gar­den project, Trin­i­ty Col­lege is cre­at­ing a space where young peo­ple can be­come dri­vers of change. This is not just about en­vi­ron­men­tal stew­ard­ship; it is about em­pow­er­ment. Stu­dents will leave Trin­i­ty Col­lege, Mo­ka not on­ly with aca­d­e­m­ic cre­den­tials but with the con­fi­dence and com­pe­tence to lead sus­tain­abil­i­ty ini­tia­tives in their fu­ture com­mu­ni­ties and work­places.

Be­yond the School: A Mod­el for the Fu­ture

The sus­tain­able gar­den on the hills of Trin­i­ty is more than a school project; it is a mod­el of what is pos­si­ble when ed­u­ca­tion, com­mu­ni­ty, gov­er­nance and na­ture come to­geth­er with pur­pose. By align­ing eco­log­i­cal re­spon­si­bil­i­ty with ex­pe­ri­en­tial learn­ing, the Mo­ka ini­tia­tive is set­ting a stan­dard for schools across the Caribbean and be­yond. In a re­gion vul­ner­a­ble to the im­pacts of cli­mate change, ris­ing sea lev­els, food in­se­cu­ri­ty, and wa­ter scarci­ty, ini­tia­tives like this are not op­tion­al; they are es­sen­tial.

This hands-on project en­hances food se­cu­ri­ty while teach­ing stu­dents how to sus­tain­ably grow and man­age food re­sources. The gar­den al­so re­in­forces en­vi­ron­men­tal re­silience and re­spon­si­ble re­source us­age and can be repli­cat­ed with oth­er schools through­out the length and breadth of T&T, with the in­tent to im­pact both lo­cal­ly and glob­al­ly.

The HAR­CON Na­tion­al Youth Sus­tain­abil­i­ty and ESG (NY­SESG) Pi­lot Project was launched in Oc­to­ber 2024. Vis­it our web­site at www.nys.har­con­tt.com