Green Campus - Recycling Reminder

In the beginning of the year, Green Campus did a survey, taking notes of whether the recycling bins and trays were properly used.

Unfortunately, we found out that a lot of classrooms had trash in the recycling bins and the trays for reusable paper were not properly used. We would like to remind everybody to start taking responsibility and contribute at making a positive difference for our college. Moreover, as well as recycling, using less paper is equally important. Lots of paper are being wasted during class for worksheets, discussion notes and so on. We would like to encourage students to tell their teachers to reduce the amount of paper and suggest using soft copies.

Lots of people seem to think that Green Campus only focuses on recycling paper, cans, bottles and so forth. However, we would like everyone to also think about reducing the use of energy such as turning off the air conditioner, lights and so on.

Please make your best effort to make our college more eco-friendly.

For more information, we are going to be presenting in assemblies, explaining the importance of recycling and details about Green Campus.

Always reduce, reuse and recycle!

Food Matters Workshops

Followers of this blog will have come across the Veggie Wednesday Campaign by students in our community. Now a group of UWCSEA parents are delving deeper into food sustainability issues. Read below latest news from Julia Hunter-Anderson.....

"Our consumption of food may not be the issue that most people think about when talking about sustainability, but actually what we choose to eat and how/where it is produced has a huge impact not just on our health but also that of our planet. 

Have you ever wondered what the palm oil plantations in Malaysia replaced? Or the impact of raising 10's billions animals for worldwide human consumption per year? Do we need to eat strawberries in winter, especially in Singapore? And what resources do we need to use to cure our poor health?

A group of 3 mothers from UWCSEA Dover and East campuses will be facilitating a series of workshops to help families make more informed and responsible food choices. The workshops will take a holistic view of our food systems, including the impacts of our choices on our health, lifestyles and the environment, as well as discovering food choices within Singapore. They will explore the key drivers behind what has shaped our current food choices and what are likely to be the key drivers and options in the future.

The workshops will provide a forum for participants to learn from and support each other, as well as hearing from experts.

The first workshop is on Friday 31st October from 10am-12pm at East Campus. There is still time to sign up - see eBrief and eFlyer for details!"

UWC Day 2014

UWC Day saw more demonstration of our attempts at Dover to put our environmental ambitions into action. This year the heads of Global Concerns & Service (Susan Edwards and Cathy Eliot) orchestrated a range of activities to give students the opportunity to experience the hard work (and fun!) that a commitment to stewardship demands.


From beach clean-ups to mulching, mass propagation and tree planting, hundreds of students worked alongside their teachers to try to enhance the environment of the campus and the island. Grade 2 students launched their gardening service with an introduction to worm composting and propogating cuttings. Good to see lots of dirty hands and happy faces!

opps... forgot to change the sprinkler timings!

Latest Updates

It's been such a busy start to the year for environmental initiatives that there has scarcely been time to write about them! Here's just a taster of what's been going on since August...

The Campus Carbon Audit has been completed by the consultants but we are still awaiting the final report so we can start setting targets on consumption. We are hoping the report will identify some key areas where we can set rigourous but realistic sustainability goals for the coming years.

LEAF GC have been continuing their No-Plastics campaign trying to reduce the huge amount of waste generated from all those throw-away cups and plates. Members of the community can help by using their own tumblers for drinks an following the eating restrictions at lunchtimes. LEAF hope to replicate the success of last year's UN Night too by encouraging everybody to bring their own bowls and crockery or using the cornware available on the night.






Green Campus is now truly a whole campus service initiative with students of all shirt colours working together to collect our recyclable waste - watch this space for more details on what you can recycle on campus and where.

While the continued efforts of these hard-working GCs is to be celebrated it is notable that waste is INCREASING and not decreasing on campus despite their campaigns over the past few years. So to all those reading this spread the word to others...we need to REDUCE and REUSE before we recycle. Recycling is our last resort. These best thing we could do on campus would be to put these groups out of a job so their talents can be used elsewhere!

Yep...that's Tamarind alright....sour face as evidence!

The UWCSEA Rainforest Restoration Project has now had parents and students trained at the Botanic Gardens in raising endangered seedlings. We are now working with NUS and the Assistant Director of the Botanic Gardens to design a research project to establish optimum growing conditions to establish early forest canopy cover on degraded lands. We are also continuing our outreach at schools such as CNIS - last week our Grade 12s gave their young gardeners club advice on caring for their adopted UWC trees.