Sustainable development, Primary, Secondary

Sustainable development at the LFRD

May 109, 2023

To be an eco-delegate in your class is to :

• Being a student who respects the environment and sets an example
• Raising awareness among classmates about everyday actions (turning off lights, checking that windows are closed in winter and that radiators are properly regulated, installing bins for sorting class waste, etc.)
• Be a driving force (proposing initiatives and actions, such as “green walks”, etc.)

Being a school eco-delegate means :

• Carrying out projects to improve biodiversity, reduce the school’s energy impact, promote eco-responsible actions by the entire educational community, raise awareness of the fight against food waste, promote actions
• Be an ambassador for the school’s departments, managers and authorities, as well as external partners
  To report on the actions carried out, to contribute to their evaluation and to their valorisation
• Pass on information and knowledge to their peers

This year, the students wanted to work on the theme of waste: “How to manage and reduce it”.

In order to help them in their task, the school approached an external partner, Little Green Spark, which trained and accompanied them for almost 10 weeks. All the eco-delegates from the first to the last year of secondary school took part in this project and benefited from 14 hours of training and support.

They were able to follow and be involved in the entire analysis process, which enabled them to design an effective and sustainable sorting and recycling system in collaboration with the management department.

They carried out an audit of the school’s waste: they observed the waste produced during a day, sorted it and weighed it
A detailed report of this audit was produced by our partner.
The eco-delegates analysed these results and thought about solutions and an action plan to reduce the waste currently going to landfill.
They then met with local recyclers to whom the school could donate recyclable waste.
“trash is nice” makes new objects out of plastic waste
“Ruy reach black soldier fly” composts organic waste and produces fertile soil using black soldier fly larvae.
“eco-batt” recycles batteries and all types of electronic waste.
Finally, they designed the sorting stations, determined their location and designed the signage
Once this sorting and recycling system is ready and in place, the whole community will be informed by the eco-delegates during an awareness campaign:

Presentation of the results of the training to all classes: awareness of waste, principle of the sorting and recycling system
Presentation to other members of the community: staff, teachers, parents
Setting up workshops and animations in the school to better understand the sorting system and its importance.
In order to make this system sustainable and effective over time, our partner has developed a monitoring plan with our students. They will have to study the evolution of the waste produced in order to evaluate the efficiency of the actions they have put in place in relation to the objectives they have set themselves.

Recycling is only the first step in this project. The final goal of the students’ action plan is to reduce the amount of waste they consume. Other actions proposed by the students will be implemented next year.

In parallel to this project, which is offered by the school to all the eco-delegates, the pupils also take part in weekly workshops supervised by volunteer teachers in order to work on other projects that are important to them.

This year, several actions have been set up:

Eco-café workshop: the pupils wish to set up regular meetings during which they can come and discuss different issues related to our impact on the environment and present solutions in the form of small presentations.
Two sessions are planned:

Dressing: how to get dressed so as not to kill yourself?
cooking: which factory for my kitchen?
Film workshop: the LFRD is participating in the prozap “Hong Kong International Film Festival on Sustainable Development”. To accompany the project of setting up recycling, they wrote and produced a film to raise awareness about waste “think before you throw”.

Logo competition for the whole school: the objective is to involve all students in the creation of a logo that represents the LFRD’s eco-commitment and that will accompany all the communications that the eco-delegates will be asked to produce.
A day dedicated to the environment: knowing that it is not only the eco-delegates who work for sustainable development in the school and that many teachers talk about it in class and carry out actions or projects linked to the programmes, the eco-delegates and the ESD referents wish to organise a day on the theme of sustainable development during which all the projects will be highlighted.
The week of 5 to 10 June was chosen because a joint action is planned for the Asia Pacific zone on 5 June for World Environment Day.