British Council Climate Cool Program 2010 ApplicationHeidi A.Y.

A. Student Profile

Name Heidi Au YeungAge 14Grade 10School West Island School

Contact Details

Mobile 9751 7373Email heidiauyeung@gmail.comSchool Address West Island School, 250 Victoria Road

Pok Fu Lam, Hong KongHome Address 2E Block 28 South Horizons

Ap Lei Chau, Hong Kong

British Council Climate Cool Program 2010 ApplicationHeidi A.Y.

B. Personal Statement

Climate change has been one of my greatest concerns ever since I learnt about it from Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth 4 years ago. In addition, 4 years ago I began dinghy sailing, you might be wondering why I’ve brought this up, but this activity has shown me the beauty of the earth and the damaging we have made. Sailing is one of those activities where you could emerge yourself into the environment, feeling care-free and thoroughly relaxed, and it is whilst doing that I could see Hong Kong from a different view. Living within Hong Kong, you don’t really see the pollution, but by taking a step back you could see the clouds of pollution settling above the horizon, above the city and the mountains shaved from their trees.

Understanding that people rely on facts and figures more than just speech, I’ve been trying to gather knowledge from other videos, documentaries and books about Earth ever since. Through them I’ve gained greater knowledge on how the Earth works, how we have tipped the balance and how climate change has affected it. Through my minimal knowledge I've been trying to spread the concern in aim of persuading others to be aware and take action too.

My parents and friends even calls me an 'environmental freak', that is whenever I insist on recycling waste or urge them to take small actions to fight climate change. And as I believe in leading by example, these are things I do as a habit. These actions range from printing double sided to emailing businesses to be more conscience of the environment in their actions, such as persuading NWFB company to raise the temperature of their air-conditioning, as it is often unnecessarily cold and I have learnt that for every degree we raise above 22.2ºC, we could reduce carbon emissions by 121 pound in a year. That is sufficient to light a 100-watt bulb for 691 hours!

Something I've noticed over the years through projects and studies on people's attitude towards climate change is that they are aware of the issue, but not motivated to take action. And other's simply haven't been taught about it and doesn't care.

(459 words)

I believe with the skills and deepened knowledge on climate change from the camp and a widened horizon on the effect of climate change, I could motivate others or as a community to take action with more confidence and strength. It’s not doubt that I am not made perfect, but I was made to try my best. And I will try my best to achieve the goal of fighting climate change through teaching

others so that they may have Greener Minds, influencing them to take Greener

Actions and so building a Greener Society.

British Council Climate Cool Program 2010 ApplicationHeidi A.Y.

C. Proposal

Babies gets carried around when they were born. But as they learn and strengthen they start to crawl and then they start to walk; taking small steps at first but these grow into larger steps and eventually they learn how to run. The process of learning may be hard, but it will definitely become easy, effortless actions with practice.

Bringing green changes into a school is similar, a school must first understand the problem to be motivated. From then they could begin to take smaller changes which grows larger over time and eventually they may influence others as a school, leading by example of how a community could be green.

British Council Climate Cool Program 2010 ApplicationHeidi A.Y.

Learning to crawlC. Proposal

Earth Day : The birth of a greener school. We could begin all green actions at West Island School with an Earth Day. On this day, students and teachers would be educated about Climate Change. Furthermore, every action taken during that day should consider the impact it has on Earth, this would demonstrate how daily habits could fight Climate Change.

For example, student and teachers should bring in their own cutlery and container for food. If not, they have to be charged an additional amount to be provided with it. In addition, all printings made should be double sided or on recycled paper, all rubbish must be recycled if possible and air-conditioning should not be used.

We could also alter the core lessons of that day. For example, in Maths, we could calculate the carbon footprint of the school and the impact it has had on Earth. In Science, we could learn about the cause and effect of Global warming, in English we could write campaign letters to businesses and the government, in PE we could plant plants on the roof or even collaborate the wider community to plant trees in the surrounding area..

Through these events, both students and teachers could learn more about Climate Change, our responsibility and the possible solutions to fight it.

British Council Climate Cool Program 2010 ApplicationHeidi A.Y.

Small stepsC. Proposal

To take fighting climate change to the next step, we could pledge as a community

to fight climate change by turning the small practices mentioned previously

into habits.

This could be achieved through setting school policies. Such as doing things electronically whenever possible and making printing a last resort. And if things have to be printed, it has to be double sided. Furthermore, we could make the charge for cutleries and containers into a long term scheme.

In addition a Rewarding Scheme for the greenest tutor group could be introduced, to create an incentive for students and teachers to be green. This could be done by giving house (Dynasty) points for every green action.Rewards

Policies

Pledge

British Council Climate Cool Program 2010 ApplicationHeidi A.Y.

C. Proposal

GREEN

ING

OU

R ROO

F

Converting the turf into real grass.

By converting the turf into real grass, we are making use of the sunlight and rainwater that usually falls onto the roof whilst giving back to the environment as oxygen is released and carbon dioxide (one of the main factors of Global Warming) is absorbed as the grass photosynthesizes.

At the same time, a green roof will also help insulate the building, minimizing the need for air-conditioning or heating and reduces Urban Heat Island. Furthermore, it can also improve air quality.

To make West Island School a green school in the long run, we could…

CEILING

FANS

Install ceiling fans instead of relying on air-conditioningNot only does ceiling fans allow air ventilation, it will also create an alternative for the energy consuming air conditionings. Stan Cox, a scientist at the Land Institute, Kansas, reported that an average air-con in the United States produces 3300 pounds of carbon each year and this could easily be what occurs in HK. On the other hand, a fan requires less than half the energy needed to operate and therefore produces half the carbon emission of using an air-con.

+ =+

Large Steps

British Council Climate Cool Program 2010 ApplicationHeidi A.Y.

C. Proposal

RENEW

ABLE POW

ER SOU

RCE

Making use of renewable resources instead of relying on fossil fuels.

Instead of solely relying on energy provided by electric companies, where electricity is mainly generated from burning fossil fuels, we could obtain energy from a reliable and renewable source – the sun.

Instead of abandoning the roof’s shelter, we could cover it with solar panels. Although it may not be sufficient to supply the electricity demand for the entire school, it will indefinitely reduce the carbon-emission produced by relying on non-renewable resources.

To make West Island School a green school in the long run, we could…

PRINTIN

G ECO

Printing is almost inevitable in school, but we could still fight climate change by using recycled paper.Each ton (2000 pounds) of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4000 kilowatts of energy, and 7000 gallons of water. By saving 17 trees, we are preventing 2,500 pounds of carbon being emitted, by saving 40000kilowatts of energy we are preventing 5480 pounds of carbon to be released.

Large Steps

British Council Climate Cool Program 2010 ApplicationHeidi A.Y.

-end-C. Proposal

West Island School’s mission is to ‘Inspire students to become global citizens’ and one of our motto is ‘A Better School, A Better World’. A Global citizen is anyone who makes the world a better place, in other words, considering the impact of each action. By educating students about climate change and by influencing them to take action is inspiring them to become global citizens, and making West Island School a greener school is making us a better school and so creating a better world.