Nurturing Environmental Awareness
Student and staff participation is the pillar of campus sustainable development. Tremendous efforts have been invested to encourage behavioral change and participation in green initiatives by promoting environmental awareness. In 2018/19, we structured various environmental initiatives to incite and reward students and staff members for their sustainable behavior and to engage them with campus campaigns with achievable aims and a call to action.
Promoting a Green Lifestyle
PolyU has developed a wide range of intramural creative campaigns on campus to instill a green living culture and encourage students and staff members to integrate green practices into daily life.
GreenCoin
PolyU is always exploring new tools and technologies to help advocate behavioral change towards green living. In April 2019, PolyU set a precedent for sustainability education among local tertiary institutions by launching an innovative and unique initiative – GreenCoin. The first of its kind in Hong Kong, it integrates and applies game features into sustainable education on campus. GreenCoin aims to engage the University community and fuel a shift toward a culture of sustainable living through connecting individual sustainable actions with rewards. The initiative serves as a vehicle for participants to experience the fruits of their green actions, such as bring-your-own food containers and supporting plastic recycling.
Aided by an easy-to-use mobile application interface and a gaming concept incorporated in its design, the GreenCoin initiative has attracted wide participation of students and staff. Participants can earn and accumulate virtual coins with completed green actions and redeem a matrix of e-coupons or other attractive rewards. This effective reward system provides great motivation for the University community to take every possible small step towards a green lifestyle. Moreover, the interactive features accessible through mobile devices can relate participants personally while keeping them engaged to make sustainable changes.
GreenCoin goes beyond a game or mobile application that induces goal-bound fun. It serves as an excellent educational medium to trigger simple behavioral shifts that enable more sustainable lifestyles on campus. It is also an impressive showcase of how inter-departmental collaboration works to accelerate sustainability education. Riding on the success of this initiative, PolyU looks forward to pioneering this innovative approach in other areas of sustainability education and motivating the University community to adopt green habits beyond campus.
VeggieLicious
To promote awareness for sustainable living and green dining in the University community, the annual VeggieLicious was held for the fourth consecutive year from 10 to 14 September 2018, featuring a rich pool of activities to highlight the benefits of sustainable dining habits.
The signature Lunch Carnival attracted over 600 students and staff members to participate in a variety of activities, such as making veggie food and creating plant-made accessories. Exclusive offers and discounts on veggie food were available during the VeggieLicious event. This fun-filled event also featured informative sharing sessions where members of the University community could gain inspirations and tips on vegetarianism.
Live GREEN 2019
Cultivating a green lifestyle has always been the core of the University’s sustainability education. As such, PolyU has dedicated efforts to promote green living in the University community. In support of World Environment Day on 5 June, a series of events were staged on 5 and 6 June 2019 under the theme “Live GREEN” to call for reflection on individual responsibility towards the environment.
PolyU believes that education in environmental protection is the basis for a green lifestyle. To this end, an interesting seminar on forest and vegetation in Hong Kong was organized to deliver information on the development and conservation of country parks in the city. In addition to the Bonus GreenCoin Day which offered GreenCoin users with extra virtual coins for their green actions, dedicated polyfoam collection boxes were also set up in canteens to collect polyfoam materials, which were later recycled through the Missing Link – Polyfoam Recycling Scheme.
The “Plastic Free Friday” Pledge
To promote a green mindset among students and staff members, PolyU initiated the “Plastic Free Friday” campaign in April 2018 to call on the University community to avoid single-use plastic items every Friday or any day in a week. Apart from students and staff, alumni and the public can also pledge online to support the plastic-free campaign. With an aim to extend influence, we have expanded the scope of the “Plastic Free Friday” pledge during the reporting year by including disposable cutlery as one of the single-use plastic items covered in the pledge, on top of disposable cups, disposable lunchboxes, plastic bags and plastic straws.
Waste Reduction Programmes
As an environmentally and socially responsible institution, PolyU places a strong emphasis on reducing waste and promoting resource conservation. Aligning with the existing policies and measures, new initiatives were implemented to reduce waste at source and maximize the use of resources on campus.
No Straw Every Day
PolyU has been focusing efforts on reducing waste on campus and promoting a plastic-free lifestyle by banning straws on Fridays since April 2018. During the reporting year, the University went the extra mile in promoting plastic-free culture with No Straw Every Day. All catering outlets on Main Campus and Student Halls of Residence agreed not to offer plastic straws unless requested from 15 October 2018. Thanks to this massive support from catering outlets, such arrangement embarked a big step towards a plastic-free campus.
Reducing disposables on campus
Apart from plastic straws, disposable dining ware is another major source of waste. PolyU supports the bring-your-own (BYO) initiative that encourages students and staff to bring their own food containers for takeaway and minimize the use of disposables. Taking a step further, an announcement was made in May 2019 to restrict the use of disposables, including food and beverage containers and cutleries, at University events. Event organizers are encouraged to rent tableware, such as reusable cups, stainless steel cutleries, plates, and coffee mugs, from campus caterers to replace disposable dinning ware.
Resources sharing
In addition to reducing waste at source, PolyU also strives to maximize the use of resources in the University community, in a bid to alleviate the serious burden of Hong Kong’s landfills. To enhance the value of event leftover materials and extend their lifespan, ResourcesSharing@PolyU was introduced as a match-making online platform for sharing resources and exchanging event leftover materials for free. Users can post information about available leftover materials or browse to search for resources they need on the platform. For instance, information of the reusable paper carton chairs from the Campus Sustainability Office was posted on the ResourcesSharing@PolyU platform. They were later claimed through the platform and reused for exhibitions on campus by another University department. The platform not only provides an opportunity to give resources a second life, but also connects the University community to work hand in hand for sustainability.
PolyU Campus Sustainability Weeks
Since 2013, PolyU has been staging Campus Sustainability Weeks (CSW) annually as a signature sustainability event to promote the integration of sustainable concepts into daily life. This year’s event featured a wealth of sharing sessions and workshops on environmental protection for the University community from 4 to 15 March 2019. PolyU worked with a number of NGOs, including WWF-Hong Kong, Green Ladies from St. James’ Settlement, Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Society, and Hong Kong Society of Herpetology Foundation, to run a series of exhibition and activities.
Experiential learning activities are arguably the best way to enhance awareness for sustainable development. As such, CSW 2019 hosted a number of hands-on workshops, featuring the theme of upcycling, such as transforming sea glass waste into accessories, turning snack bags into coin purses, and making luggage tags with used car tires. The participants could take home their handcrafted items, while learning a precious lesson on conserving resources.