LEAF's UN Night Success

Here's a report from Naomi and Eva of LEAF GC on their successful UN Night campaign featured in an earlier post (1st Octber 2013)

".......We presented in assemblies, posted on grade walls on Facebook, wrote about it in EBrief and Dunia to make sure that students, faculty and parents were all informed about what was happening on the night itself. Because of this, the process of which we sold the corn ware products went swiftly and efficiently, thus letting our guests enjoy and take in more of joyful atmosphere that surrounded us all.

All the left over biodegradable cornware cutlery from UN Night
ready to be taken to a local recycling bin!

In the end, majority of the people had come back and returned the boxes and cutlery, and on top of that, numerous guests didn't even ask for the money back, giving us the money as a donation. With this money that we accumulated, we are now able to donate it to a cause we believe strongly in which is to plant trees in Ladakh. We think that this is a good cause because not only does it dispose of air and view pollution but also makes our lives more colorful and full of life. Without any of your help, this would not have been possible! So on behalf of the whole Leaf GC, we wanted to extend our utmost thanks to every one of you who helped make this dream a reality for our GC. Even though, we are a small GC and this may have been a small action that we took on, we all must realize and remember that even the smallest actions count, whatever it may be, small or big, as long as you did it for the better, every bit counts! So yet again, thank you for your contribution and thank you for enabling us to make a difference in our community. We hope that next year and the following years after that, we will be able to continue to make UN night  a successful plastic free event."

Completing the circle - real sustainability at UWC Dover

At last a story of genuine progress toward sustainability..not just being 'less bad' , but putting into practice the ultimate goal of sustainability - to mimic natural cycles by using waste to re-create resources.....

The Budden boys (L-R: Jochem, Sidd, Xander, Billy and Antoine) with their first home-made compost.

The Grade 12 Budden group (named after generous project sponsors and UWC parents, the Budden Family) have been turning vegetable scraps from Sodexho into compost, the nutrient-rich soil enhancer that is perfect for feeding plants on campus. With the help of Head gardener Andy Tan and a Grade 9 Service group, the boys have been converting as much as 50 kilos of food waste a day into valuable fertiliser and mulch. The first batch of the compost was recently delivered to the Rainforest Nursery GC where it has been used in place of expensive commercially-produced products. And the trees that like compost best? You might have guessed - the fruit trees such as Mangoes, Longans and Mangosteens that we have in the nursery.....which will of course eventually produce fruit whose scraps can be composted to provide fertiliser for fruit trees which will......you get the idea. We save money and resources and the boys get a good work-out and a real sense of achievement in helping the College achieve its mission. So all you Geographers, ESS students, Economists and DT kids looking for an example of a project that demonstrates  Economic, Social and Environmental Sustainability (The Triple bottom line), look no further than a corner of the Dover Campus. Well done fellas!

Getting down and dirty to produce Garden Gold!

Rainforest Nursery GC continues to plant the planet....

Planting with UWC Parent Sally Letele, UWC Alumni Zach Rees
and Rainforest Nursery GC members Rahul and Mary Kate.
Photo Aayesha Fazal

Recent weeks have seen more planting by the Rainforest Nursery GC. UWC Parent Sally Letele kindly gave up space in her beautiful garden to raise 4 of our saplings grown from seed in our specialised tree nursery here at Dover. We were joined by recent UWC graduate and Sally's neighbour Zach Rees. Having studied Geography and Environmental Systems & Society at I.B, Zach maybe off to study Environmental Law at university and was very keen to develop his practical interest in conservation. Maybe a UWC education really can help build a sustainable future.

Philanthropist and fellow tree lover
 Kirtida Mekani welcomes the volunteers

Dedicated GC members also planted trees in the half term holiday joining Frazer Cairns and Frankie Meehan and his kids to help UWC Foundation Trustee Kirtida Mekani celebrate 50 years of greening Singapore. 50 trees* were planted along Punggol Promenade, a 4.5 km park connector. Kirtida is a well-known philanthropist with a dedication to environmental causes and is very kindly helping with the development of the nurseries at both campuses. It was great that we we could share in this celebration and we hope to emulate Kirtida by planting as many indigenous trees as we can in the coming years so Singapore becomes famous for real trees rather than giant pretend ones!

*3 species: Syzygium syzygoides (Kelat Hitam), Calophyllum soulattri (Bintangor Bunut) and Planchonella obovatum (Sea Gutta)
All photos: Frankie Meehan

The Meehan triplets did a great job planting this large sapling!

Arjan, Sabrina, Mary Kate and Aayesha doing what they do best.

Rahul sees our saplings off to the Botanic Gardens on the UWC truck

Another good news story for the GC is that over 20 or our indigenous saplings were recently transferred to the Singapore Botanic Gardens for data-logging before they are to be planted out on an old palm oil plantation as part of our joint reforestation project with SBG. It'll be good to see oil palm replaced with native rainforest in SE Asia for once....

UN Night- LEAF's Campaign

UN Night is coming up on the 10th October and LEAF GC is campaigning for another No Plastic initiative. Everyone is highly encouraged to bring your own plates, cutlery and bowls etc. 

LEAF will also be setting up 2 stalls supplying recycled cornware cutlery and lunch boxes that could be borrowed at a deposit on the night. If you return the cutlery and lunch boxes to the stalls, you will receive your money back, as we want to ensure they are recycled externally. Any extra money from the deposits will go to planting trees in Ladakh. 

Here is the break down of the cutlery and lunch box deposit: (as seen in pictures)

Fork + Spoon - $1
Box - $1

Fork + Spoon + Box - $2

We hope that we can continue from last year's successful initiative and move one step forward in reducing UWC's carbon footprint!

Rainforest Nursery GC - greening the neighbourhood...

September 20th saw Rainforest Nursery GC's first planting at another school. Neighbours Dover Court kindly accepted nine of our saplings raised from seed in our nursery on Dover Campus. We hope their students enjoy the shade and beauty as much as we enjoyed planting them. Hot dry weather over the weekend was a real worry (trees get stressed when leaving their pots!) but Rahul's rain dance ensured a good downpour on Monday so the young trees should survive and thrive in their spacious grounds. If you know of another school that might be grateful for some of our trees, do let us know - we are keen to spread our success story and make Singapore a greener place for all.

Well done to all the tree-planters who worked in very hot conditions:L-R: Nina Bengttson, Aaeysha Fazaal, Rahul Thayil, Sabrina Chui, Saanj Gupta, Jared Goh, Ella McAuliffe, Ana Koczanowski and members of the Dover Court Estates team.Photos courtesy of Frankie Meehan (who dug the most holes too!)

Rainforest GC reforesting Singapore

In May 2013 members of Rainforest GC planted out three more rainforest trees raised from seed in our dedicated tree nursery on the Dover Campus. With space running out on Campus we have decided to offer trees to the wider community. An interested parent kindly gave us space to plant in her lovely garden along nearby Coronation Road.

pictured left to right: Arjan Heck, Nina Bengtsson, Mary-Kate How Fee, Sabrina Chui, 

Terminalia cattapia (Sea Almond) 

                                          

 Andira inermis (Brownheart)

Planting in May 2013- - not pictured

Delonix regia (Flame of the Forest )

There will be more plantings soon as the Nursery makes space for more critically endangered species in an exciting new partnership with Singapore Botanic Gardens. Please contact Nathan Hunt on nhu@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg if you would like to be involved or know someone who might want a rainforest tree in their garden!

No Drive day number 2 - a huge thank you

Thank you to everyone who participated in the 2nd No Drive Day on the 29th May 2013. Be it volunteering to ensure infant school's safety or simply taking public transport and walking into school. 

We are glad to announce that a total of 385 cars drove into school (usually between 700-800 on a normal day) and our  40kg of parent-sponsored bananas ran out at 7:50am (that's about 240-260 people walking into school).

So thank you for everyone's support in making the 2nd No Drive Day a huge success. It is uplifting to be part of a community that is so enthusiastic and cooperative in our environmental initiative.

and yet more greening of the campus...

We have a little nut tree!

by Frankie Meehan

photo:Frankie Meehan

On 22 May we celebrated our fourth International Green Wave Day. Students from the “40 Trees for 40 Years” environmental service planted a nutmeg tree (Myristica fragrans) in the small island in front of the Communications and Marketing Office.

The nutmeg is remarkable for producing not just one, but two, popular spices: nutmeg and mace. The egg-shaped seed has a lacy, reddish covering known as mace in its dried form. Both spices are sweetish and aromatic. If you are a fan of the local dessert, ais kacang, you may be interested to know that the Penang version of the dish is topped with shavings of nutmeg rind. Even Scottish haggis contains both nutmeg and mace.

Until the mid-19^th century nutmeg trees grew only in the Banda islands of Indonesia. They have since spread throughout the region; indeed, Orchard Road got its name from the nutmeg, pepper and fruit plantations that dominated the area about 80 years ago. Next time you pass the Ion Orchard shopping mall, look out for a lovely bronze sculpture, Nutmeg and Mace, by Kumari Nahappan.