Composting at Dover hits the News!

Our long-running composting project at Dover described in earlier blog posts was recently featured on the Channel News Asia Website as well as on their facebook page where the video has received over 120, 000 views so far!

The project is run by a High School team as part of the Budden Composting Initiative started in 2012 following a generous donation to the UWCSEA Foundation. The daily collections of coffee grounds and fruit and vegetable peelings are made by Grade 5 students under the guidance of Junior School's Environmental Stewardship Co-ordinator, Nicole Kutschenreuter. The final product, a rich soil conditioning compost and fertiliser is used in our Incredible Edible Project in the vegetable and herb gardens. Congratulations to all involved for making this so successful a project, now in its 5th year of development and special thanks to our Sodexo team and Operations Department for establishing the waste separation system and continually working with the students to perfect the logistics.

The NTU Business students learn how to prepare the best compost mix

Many UWCSEA alumni wrote in to say how proud they were that UWC was featured in the news and following the article some business students from Nanyang Technological University were so impressed they came to see the process in action. As part of their Business course they are looking at sustainable solutions to food waste in Singapore and hope that their promotion of this will lead NTU to introduce a large scale system on their campus too. Hopefully even more educational institutions will adopt composting as one of the ways to address food waste, now that Dover has shown the way!

We welcomed the chance to share our process with NTU business students..and hope we have inspired other too

We shall soon be partnering with the National Environment Agency on a pilot scheme to divert our post-consumer food waste (the stuff that gets scraped off plates that we cannot compost) into a Biodigestion scheme that converts waste to energy for a water reclamation plant at Tuas. Plans are also underway to seek Government funding for our own Biodigester that could even compost our new disposable cups that Sodexo are using in the Heritage cafe.

Air Bee n Bee comes to Dover

Great work this week from the Junior school Keen Bees Group led by Brendan Doyle.

Keen Bees are preparing for the long awaited arrival of our stingless beehive at Dover and constructed some very welcoming bee hotels in our central plaza.

As soon as the hive clears all paperwork with the Government, we should have an excellent team of natural pollinators to help our gardens flourish. Watch this space.....or maybe Trip Advisor.

Well done team...bee-autiful job. And thanks and good luck in your move Brendan...we'll keep you posted when our first guests arrive!

Beyond the Haze Awards Gala

UWCSEA Award winners with Beyond the Haze Organisers
Roshan's superb drawing and poetry can be seen on his left. 
Excerpts from Gauri and Jasmin's videos were shown at the Gala too.

Thanks to Irene and Paul of Beyond the Haze campaign group for hosting a superb Awards Gala at the Movenpick hotel on Sentosa at the weekend. As detailed in the last post, UWCSEA was well-represented with two runners-up (Jasmin, G7 and Roshan, G1) and a winner (Gauri, G8) who gave a superb speech as a fitting finale to the evening.

Inspiration also came from groups such as Bye Bye Plastic Bags and Kids Cut Palm Oil as well as Wildlife Asia who are working on solutions on the ground in Sumatra and showed us that campaigning is making a genuine difference to policies surrounding Palm Oil and Deforestation.

For more details of Gauri's campaign and to get involved in this issue see her blog.

An experienced Environmental campaigner...
with a much older fan.

Well done to all three..we're so proud of you!

Dover Students get creative to win Sustainability awards for UWCSEA

Congratulations to the Junior & Middle School students who have been recognised in recent competitions on Environmental Sustainability issues!

Grade 8 Gauri Shukla whose runs the SOS Campaign against the Haze and was featured recently in our Dunia publications was a winner in the recent Beyond The Haze competition which featured schools across the region. Her video was judged best in her age group and for her prize she is off to the fabulous Leusner National Park in Sumatra to view the work of local NGOs in creating a more sustainable future for the forests of Indonesia.

Contest Winner Gauri Shukla 

Grade 7 Jasmine Picard and Grade 1 Roshan Srivastava were also a prize-winning runners-up; their creative videos and posters that raised awareness of the Haze issue beat hundreds of others to feature in the top places.

Thanks to Environmental Stewardship co-ordinators, Gordon Hirons (MS) & Nicole Kutschenreuter (JS) for supporting these entries.



Grade 8 Geographers were also recognised in an essay competition this year on Sustainable Cities organised by the Trust for Sustainable Living. Noyna Roy's excellent essay made her a finalist while Rohan Punamiya and Vivek Venkatram's entries also received Honourable Mentions. Considering this was a truly global competition with over a thousand entries, their achievements are outstanding.

Global Finalist Noyna Roy

Many thanks to Mark Porter and the Middle School Humanities department who linked this competition to the work the Grade 8 Geographers do in their exciting Future Cities Unit and supported the writing process in the MS GeogSoc lunchtime activity.



Well done to all students and teachers and parents who supported them. Great to see a growing interest in Environmental sustainability issues across the school and genuine thinking and action by these creative students to achieve our mission.

Campus Gardeners - A tale of Circular Economists and Social Entrepreneurs

Campus Gardening crew rightly proud of their work on the new pallet planters

There are a lot of Buzz-words around Sustainability at the moment. From the Business pages to the Management sections in bookstores and even in Educational curricula, phrases like the Circular Economy and Social Entrepreneurship are all the rage. Student groups here at Dover however are showing just how simple these big ideas can really be in practice.

Campus Gardening and Edible Schoolyard teams have been using these upcycled builders' pallets salvaged from the High School building site by our Head Gardener Andy Tan. Andy's carpentry skills have turned waste destined for the incinerator into a valuable growing space on a crowded campus.

Waste saved, money saved; a creative and beautiful solution for a sustainable world.

Fresh and tasty Okra has been a big success

With a bit (ok a lot) of guidance from expert Susan Edwards the new Grade 2 Garden space in the new building is yielding its first harvests. The Okra (ladies fingers) has been particularly successful and enjoyed by our landscape team in their lunchtime curries. And just this weekend some peppery rocket was delivered to Dover's very own celebrity chef and social entrepreneur Shen Ming Lee to try in a dish for her Fresco Supper Club. Profits from the enterprise go to support refugee education in Malaysia. So it seems yet another fashionable sustainability concept, Farm-to-Table, can be carried out right here on Campus and help a student's efforts to make business build a better world.

Super-chef Shen takes delivery of the fresh rocket

G2's Urban Garden in our new building

Dover Campus awarded Green Mark Platinum!

As an update to this recent post , it is very exciting to share the news from Director of Operations Simon Thomas that the entire Dover Campus has been awarded Green Mark Platinum by the Building and Construction Authority of Singapore. Congratulations to our engineers Kenny and Ramar and of course Simon and the rest of the Facilities Team who have put a huge amount of effort into achieving this. Well done everyone!!!

To give you an idea of the significance of this achievement, read this summary from Simon below....

"As the highest award available in Singapore for buildings designed, built and operated with a focus on resource efficiency and the environment,  it is an important statement on our focus on minimising our environmental footprint where possible and of course minimising our multi-million dollar costs related to our facilities portfolio.

It must also be noted that this was achieved using our internal talent and knowledge without additional green mark consultancy which is considered highly unusual but a testimony to the commitment and expertise of the campus team.

This was not awarded to a single building but similar to the East campus, it has been awarded to the whole campus. We remain the only international school with these awards".

For more information on some of the team's work visit their Negative Watts  blog.

This new research shows that what the team has achieved will have lasting impacts on the education and behaviour of our students.

Now while it's right to shout about this fantastic achievement, of course it's even more reason for all of us, teachers, staff and parents to look for ways in which WE can show our commitment to care for the campus by saving energy and water, reducing waste and keeping it litter free. This will be the best way to say thanks to the team for all the efforts they have put in. Of course if you see them, do pass on your congratulations!

Discounted Drinks! The Cafe Initiative is Back!

Watch this space for details of further changes to pricing around drinks and take-away items as UWCSEA tries to live it mission and tackle its mammoth waste issue. As part of this long-term project there will be a repeat of the students' Cafe Initiative that they carried out successfully with our partners Sodexo last term. Read the details in this message from Grade 12 student activist Samay Bansal:

'Discounted Drinks! The Cafe Initiative is Back!'

"I invite you to consider this statistic;

The amount of plastic waste in the oceans today equates to approximately 5 plastic bags for each foot of coastline.

I am sure you are aware of the rampant increase in plastic usage and waste in society globally and are equally aware that something needs to be done about it.

I would like to inform you about the Cafe Initiative that has been created to do just this. Its aim is to create a system, albeit temporary, that will attempt to cause systemic change within our community. 

The end goal? For the usage of disposable plastics to be reduced/eliminated wherever possible within the campus. It is unrealistic to assume that the school will be 100% plastic free, however, it is within our grasp to use our own cups/mugs/tumblers to purchase our morning's coffee instead of a plastic/paper cup. 

The cafe initiative will run for one week, between the 29th of February and 4th of March and will create a 'VIP' lane in front of the Vive cafe. If you bring your own cup/mug/tumbler, you are welcome to stand in this 'green' line - you will be served before the next 4 people without a cup, will receive at least a 50c discount on any beverage (not just coffee), and will have bragging rights forever!

The 'red' line will consequently be for individuals without their cups and they will need to wait slightly longer. There will be no questions/survey/petitions this time, however, we may ask 'Do you know why this system exists? Was it brought to your attention well in advance?' Again, no personal information will be collected, this is just to get feedback our campaigning strategy.

Note: The red/green lane system will come into play if you need to purchase a drink (and food). If you are only purchasing food you are welcome to enter from the 3rd lane. 

The numbers of people in either line will be tracked closely and the statistics will be shared with the community in the days following...

I seek your understanding and support in this initiative and hope that there is eventually a reduction in the amount of disposable plastics and paper cups used by the community."

Many thanks,
Samay Bansal, Grade 12.

Dover Campus' commitment to the Mission recognised in Straits Times

Dover Campus' commitment to the making education a force for a sustainable future was recognised in Straits Times last week. You can see a display of some of the amazing tech that has made the megablock a world-class building in terms of energy efficiency in the foyer of the Administration Offices on the third floor.







 Our whole campus was also inspected earlier this month for the final assessment for Green Mark Platinum - a certification of buildings that meet strict environmental criteria. The 5 components of the assessment are Energy Efficiency, Water Efficiency, Sustainable Operation and Management, Indoor Air Quality and Other Green Features. Simon Thomas, our Director of Operations who has been leading the bid for this certification explains the significance:

"If we are successful in this application and we are given the Platinum award (the highest available in Singapore) it will be a true testament and recognition to the efforts of the whole department in continuously making decisions based on energy and water efficiency and acting in line with best practices in sustainable operation and management of the facilities.

It must be remembered that sustainability is at the heart of the UWCSEA educational mission and this whole effort demonstrates our alignment in not only educating the students in sustainability but very much acting as a leading example of green facilities management for other organisations in Singapore.

This journey has been ongoing for over 7 years, It’s been a rather extraordinary effort from many individuals to get the campus to this position, I am very grateful for everyone’s efforts. Thank You!"

Good luck to Simon and the team...we expect the good news soon!
Follow the team's superb work on all their engineering strategies for resource efficiency on the Negative Watts blog.

So much happening...no time to blog lah!

Term 1 at Dover Campus flew by with so much expansion of our environmental stewardship initiatives that there was scarcely time to record all that was going on. So here's just a taster of the last few months...

Green Campus GC has been working flat out to unite light blue, dark blue and green shirts for a sustainable future by continuously updating our recycling systems. Not only do they organise the system but they sort, clean and deliver most of our recycling on College. It's hard, dirty work that has little glamour and publicity so if you see the team at work on a Thursday afternoon, do show them your thanks for their fantastic efforts...and of course make sure you reduce re-use and recycle.

Talking of reducing LEAF GC supported by Round Square Student Leaders extended their campaign to reduce the use of disposable plastics on Campus with their innovative 'VIP lane' for those using re-usable mugs. The initiative was a huge success thanks to terrific organisation by long-time campaigner Samay Bansal (G12) - a man who has the courage and conviction to accept the moaning from those who have yet to embrace the zero-waste message. Clearly however the coolest kids were delighted by life in the fast lane. Boys where you at?

 

 The Zero-waste message was re-enforced by the outgoing Student Council at the end of term one with a vivid demonstration of a typical morning's waste at Dover Campus. This is our daily contribution to Singapore's Incinerator..yep everything here is burned sending carcinogens, heat and useful resources up into the atmosphere...the very opposite of our mission. Please help spread the message...let's move to the zero waste-age.

Campus Gardening now incorporates many different groups all working hard to support our amazing landscapes team lead by the legend that is Andy Tan. You can follow the Edible Schoolyard group on their blog here or on twitter @UWC_edibleyard . With attacks by squirrels, snails and aphids, this group are sure developing some resilience and learning a lot too. They have had great successes along with the struggles through and customers at the Holiday Fair were delighted to buy delicious turmeric and herbs freshly harvested from our dover gardens.

Andy Tan and Sajjat display these superb planters that Andy recycled from old builders' pallets. Turns out Andy's a demon carpenter as well as gardener!