We are living in an era of climate change. Being sustainable and more environmentally aware is more urgent than ever. Here are how schools and students are doing their part to champion sustainability to protect our planet.
Concordia International School Shanghai
Responses from: Yoyo Zou
Minimizing and managing food wastage at Concordia International School
In September 2020, a group of students at Concordia began an initiative within their school’s Global Issues Network to target an often overlooked, yet incredibly prevalent issue–food waste.
Awareness videos and poster campaigns helped students and faculty learn about the impact of their wastefulness, a tracker with set goals motivated students to hit lower food waste targets, newsletters and emails to parents urged them to help their kids be conscious of food waste at home as well as in school, and speaking with Aramark staff allowed for the normalization of communication between food servers and students–asking for portion size is as simple as 1, 2, and 3 (a little rice, a medium amount, or a lot)!
With the support of Concordia’s administration and Aramark (the school’s food supplier), members of the food waste team were able to collect qualitative data about the types of food being wasted while also regularly weighing the amount of food wasted by the school. By working with Aramark, PSO teams, faculty, administration, and the student body, the food waste team was able to work on solving the issue at multiple levels. Awareness videos and poster campaigns helped students and faculty learn about the impact of their wastefulness.
The food waste team began the brunt of their campaigns in the wintertime and by April, the average amount of food wasted per day was over 200 kg less than the at the beginning of the school year! While the food waste campaign at Concordia can definitely be called a success, there is still a ways to go. In the coming years, we hope to partner with other schools around Shanghai to develop similar projects.
Address: 999 Mingyue Road, Jinqiao, Pudong New Area
Enquiry telephone number: 5899 0380
Website: https://www.concordiashanghai.org/
Shanghai American School (Pudong Campus)
Responses from: Mark Ginder – K-12 Roots & Shoots Coordinator
Roots & Shoots is a Youth Movement that originally was an initiative started in 1991 by Dr. Jane Goodall. Roots & Shoots aims to develop programmes that benefit the environment, animals, and communities around the world. Our chapter currently has about 100 active members and we were recently awarded the Roots & Shoots chapter of the year award for our recycling, community garden, composting, and greenhouse efforts.
A major paradigm shift happened a few years ago when we articulated our five Learning Goals to bring our Mission to life. These were a set of principles that would equip students to transfer their knowledge and experiences beyond the classroom, in authentic settings, over a lifetime.
One of these key goals focused on our students being Ethical Global Citizens and taking actions to impact sustainability in significant ways.
Like a ship with new coordinates, we are now charting a course that embeds sustainability throughout our community like never before.
Motivating our leadership has never been an issue from my end. We are currently looking to install a rather large organic farm along with upgrades to our greenhouse and thinking carefully about how we will further develop green learning spaces throughout our campus.
Our operations team is currently working towards developing a new strategic plan that will reduce the amount of waste and energy consumption through an innovative and bold redesign of our spaces.
Address: 1600 Ling Bai Road, Pudong New Area
Enquiry telephone number: 6221 1445
Website: www.saschina.org
Wellington College International Shanghai
Responses from: Andrew Willis, Vice Principal
Every part of our curriculum, from the arts to the sciences, presents an opportunity to learn about how we can better conserve resources. We also take numerous practical measures around campus to reduce waste and conserve energy.
Our entire school community is pro-active in staying sustainable. Activities have included school-wide recycling initiatives, composting food waste to fertilise an organic garden, inviting guest speakers to talk about electric cars and debate and speech projects that teach our pupils about global issues such as the Paris Agreement. IB Fellowships and annual expeditions often give our pupils an opportunity to engage with the wider community in sustainability projects as well.
All year groups particpate. For instance, in 2018, our Prep School established a school-wide paper recycling programme.The ongoing project has enjoyed so much success that our Pre-Prep and Senior Schools are now involved. Last year, our year 3 pupils started a Green Plates initiative to encourage more plant-based eating in our canteen. Our Global Champions Co-Curricular Activity (CCA) encourages pupil activism in social responsibility and environmental issues such reducing single-use plastics and food waste.
Our administrators are very much on the same page in this regard, so ‘motivation’ is not difficult. Nevertheless, we do implement comprehensive waste management and energy consumption policies on campus. In the classroom, we opt for digital tablets over pens and paper whenever possible.
Address: 1500 Yaolong Road, Pudong New Area
Enquiry telephone number: 5185 3885
Website: https://shanghai.wellingtoncollege.cn/
Dulwich College Shanghai, Pudong Campus
Responses from Tia Luker-Putra, Year 6 Teacher, Sustainability Coordinator, UN TeachSDGs Ambassador
The Sustainability Development Goals of the UN are everyone’s concern, and as educational institutions, it is our responsibility to lead the way for the next generation. At Dulwich College Shanghai Pudong, we are on a journey to be part of the multi-faceted solution to the world’s environmental issues.
As a collective, our school’s vision for our community is that we “Live Worldwise™”. Our goal is to encourage our communities to make informed choices, take inspired action, and create a positive impact on three levels: personal, group, and global. Across the Dulwich College International and Dehong sister schools, we have made sustainability pledges to help concentrate our focus on shared sustainability goals. As a school, we partner with different local organizations that centre their work on sustainability, and they bring their work to our students. Here, they share what they do with a larger audience and more members of our community get to know them better. New relationships were borne from these events, as parents, staff, and organizers networked to create new opportunities for future projects.
Students from different clubs, with distinctly different sustainability elements, showcase their work as well. They discuss with parents, members of the community, and staff their efforts to align with the Sustainability Development Goals of the UN and what action they were taking to do so. The Green Panthers, the Junior School sustainability club, shared their projects of growing herbs and learning about sustainable growing. Senior school students spent a term designing and creating eco-friendly fashion for a fashion show, with all their materials coming from discarded clothing.
This year was the first year of our parent sustainability club, the Eco-Panthers Club, which has helped us to expand our sustainability-minded community. Throughout the year, they had held various events for the staff body to promote more sustainable living with tips for doing so successfully in Shanghai. At the Own What You Eat event, they sold off gorgeous upcycled items they had made from old display banners. Finally, one of the most popular features of the Own What You Eat event was the chance to sample delicious plant-based Z-Rou food that are featured in our cafeteria. It was a fantastic opportunity for members of our community to come together to eat, talk, and share the marvellous, sustainable work they are doing.
Address: 266 Lan An Road, Jinqiao Pudong New Area
Enquiry telephone number: 3896 1200
Website: www.shanghai-pudong.dulwich.org
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