Singapore, 27 February 2014 – The School Green Awards enters its 14th year with the launch of the School Green Awards (SGA) 2014 - a holistic environment programme for all schools in Singapore.
The Singapore Environment Council’s (SEC) objective of reaching out to students at every phase of their journey takes on a stronger influence with the introduction of a customised audit questionnaire for students from Institutes of Higher Learning (IHL), which includes local and private universities, polytechnics and Institutes of Technical Education (ITE).
Member of Parliament for Nee Soon GRC, Er Dr Lee Bee Wah, officiated the launch at the Singapore Institute of Management (Namly Avenue) as the Guest-of-Honour.
“Reaching out to students from Institutes of Higher Learning and securing their buy-in is critical - they are undoubtedly agents of change as future leaders in society. With IHLs on board, all bases are covered - from preschools all the way up to polytechnics, ITEs, universities as well as schools for students with special needs. Every student is now exposed to positive environmental influence,” said Mr Jose Raymond, Executive Director of the Singapore Environment Council.
Today’s launch also coincides with one of the many ENVision dialogue sessions to gather and understand Singaporeans’ common vision and values for their environmental future, as part of the review of the Sustainable Singapore Blueprint (SSB), announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in October 2013. Over 50
students and teachers have come together in today’s 4th dialogue session to envisage an environmental vision for Singapore.
Member of Parliament for Nee Soon GRC, Er Dr Lee Bee Wah said: “I am very glad that students and educators have given much support to the environmental cause by coming together to exercise their minds and imagination to generate ideas and solutions of Singapore’s environmental story of the future. The youths today are creative and have high aspirations, and I believe their involvement in today’s dialogue session will generate fresh concepts and viewpoints. All of us have a stake in this field. The younger people instinctively understand that they have a bigger stake in a sustainable future, as they are going to inherit the world that we will leave
behind.”
The new audit questionnaire features a stronger focus on pertinent environmental topics within the Singapore context.These include mitigating the excessive use of plastic bags, encouraging the recycling of electronic waste and reducing food wastage.
These new topics will be incorporated into the School Green Awards booklet, alongside topics such as green transport and green lifestyle tips. The booklet aims to inculcate positive behaviour at home as well and will garner an estimated 1.4 million readers in 2014. The booklets contain handy tips and facts that pertain to all members of the family, and will be translated into Chinese, Malay and Tamil.
“The Council relentlessly strives to make the programme more valuable and relevant in order to empower students to make a difference through their daily habits. Supporting partners recognise the importance of reaching out to our youths and do not hesitate to show their strong support. This year, we are heartened to have the support of many new partners from the public and private sectors,” added Mr Raymond.
“Club 21 is proud to support the Singapore Environment Council’s School Green Awards for the second year running, now expanded to include polytechnics, private and public universities. The Awards reward schools for encouraging environmentally-friendly daily habits in their students, thus making them active partners in their own sustainable future,” said a spokesperson from Club 21.
Ms Chin Soo Fang, Head of Corporate Communications and CSR, Singapore Press Holdings said: “We are proud to continue our support for the School Green Awards 2014. The programme is a meaningful one which instils green lifestyle habits in students and their families which, when added up, can make a big difference.”
“We all need to play a part in preserving our natural environment,” said Ms Jeannie Ong, Chief Marketing Officer, StarHub, “and there is no better time to start going Green than when one is young. After all, it is the youth who will inherit the earth.”
In addition to being a new partner of the School Green Awards, StarHub has already been engaging the community to go Green through initiatives like MyStarHub e-bill, to save paper, and the StarHub E-Waste Recycling Programme. With 38 bins at 17 locations around Singapore, StarHub’s E-Waste Recycling Programme is still the only channel for customers to responsibly recycle their electronic waste, regardless of whether they purchased it from StarHub or not.
“Environmental stewardship is everyone’s responsibility. We share SEC’s goal of mitigating climate change through awareness and action, and we are thus delighted to support the School Green Awards. Students can become effective agents of change, and positively influence their family members, peers and the larger
community to care for our environment,” said Mr Yuen Sai Kuan, Director, 3P Network Division, National Climate Change Secretariat.
Through engaging schools, the SEC is on track in reaching out to over 1 million people by 2015. Actual figures after submissions by the participating schools for SGA 2013 showed an outreach of close to half a million students.
The awards ceremony will be held on 4 November 2014. Interested parties should visit www.sec.org.sg/sga for more information on eligibility, application guidelines, and to submit applications. Applications for SGA 2014 close on 30 September 2014.
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