GREENWEEK 2019 – THANK YOU!

See our GreenWeek 2019 wrap-up video that highlights the various activities involving the whole CDNIS community!  A special thanks to the following green allies who helped make these events happen!

GREENWEEK 2019 (23-30th April) is almost here!

Our 5th annual celebration of all things environmental is almost here!  GreenWeek 2019 (from 23-30th April) is a collaboration between all segments of the CDNIS community: students, staff & parents are leading and participating in various activities to take action towards a more sustainable future.  GreenWeek always coincides with the annual international Earth Day on 22nd April.  See the schedule of activities here, and we hope to see you at many of them!

CDNIS FOOD WASTE DECREASED BY MORE THAN 50%!

Congratulations CDNIS – we’ve successfully been reducing our food waste throughout this school year and have decreased it by 50.9% compared to the average of the 2017-2018 school year!  Keep communicating with cafeteria staff about your preferred portions, especially of rice, noodles and side dishes!  Our composter can only handle so much carbs, just like us!

CDNIS WINS BRONZE IN GREEN SCHOOL AWARD 2018!

On the 26th of September, CDNIS was recognized by the green communities of Hong Kong as a community that is committed to learning about environmental sustainability and putting it into practice. The Honourable Secretary for the Environment of the HKSAR government, Mr. Kam Sing Wong, shared with the audience how important taking action is, and that the youth play a big role in developing the mindset shift for the wider HK community.   This year there was an additional competition highlighting food waste and CDNIS also won the “Outstanding Award” level for the Green School Green Lunch Award for our efforts related to food waste monitoring with the help of Maxim’s.

Mana Mehta (a Gr. 12 environmentalist who sits on the School Environmental Education Development [SEED] committee) represented the student body at the award ceremony in the Wanchai Convention & Exhibition Centre, with Mr. MacEachern and Ms. Safaya (the co-chairs of the SEED committee).  It was a positive learning experience seeing what the Silver and Gold winning schools do, and we have some new ideas about what to focus on in the coming months and years to improve our environmental footprint as a whole school.

 

A screen showing the various initiatives that occur at CDNIS related to environmental education including a GreenRoof urban gardening learning experience by Gr. 12s to Lower School students; our updated waste management sorting station in the Level 6 cafeteria, and beach clean-up event hosted by the Upper School e-club.

Click here for more photos submitted to the Green School Award for their promotional materials when highlighting the work that CDNIS Lower & Upper Schools have been doing!

 

 

 

 ENERGY SUSTAINABILITY

CDNIS is equipped with a real-time energy monitoring system called Entrak.  See how we are doing right now with regards to our electricity consumption!  To see frequent updates, scroll down below the Eco-smart Environmental policy.

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GREENWEEK 2018 (23-28th Apr)

See the WRAP-UP & THANK YOU video of GreenWeek 2018 here!

See the whole schedule for all the events from the 23-28th of April 2018 by clicking here!  The list of events include:

  • free Green Dress Down Day
  • GreenWeek Cinema & Art exhibition
  • Upcycling workshops
  • “Swap, Not Shop” clothing pop-up
  • Farmers Market for local organic veggies
  • Green Roof yoga & mindfulness
  • City Nature Challenge hikes & field trips

As a multi-year winner of green school awards in Hong Kong (photo shows: CDNIS wins the Silver Award at 13th Green School Award prize presentation, with avid student environmentalist, Scarlett!) CDNIS continues to strive to reduce it’s ecological footprint on the planet (see our Eco-Smart website).  With successful and on-going initiatives like weekly “Fridays Lights Out” from 10:50am-1:15pm, the annual Green Week events, being plastic bottle free, giving excess unprocessed food to the Foodlink charity for the needy, hosting Green Mondays twice a month in our cafeteria, updating our lights to high efficiency lights and/or LED technology, encouraging a responsible air-conditioner use policy, procuring only recycled paper for general staff & student printing, engaging educational opportunities on our Green Roof with Green Thumbs, and monitoring our energy consumption regularly with En-Trak technology to name a few initiatives, CDNIS is committed to doing it’s part for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (specifically SDGs 11-15).

For details of what CDNIS has been doing since 2010 about all things green, check out the archived website, EcoSmart.  From 2017 onwards, this site will host news about CDNIS’s action towards environmental sustainability.

CDNIS’s Eco-Smart Environmental Policy:

This policy (see right-side photo) from 2012 demonstrates a great willingness to address the ecological footprint of the school.  In 2016, there was a renewed call for attention to environmental sustainability with the following statement from the CDNIS Leadership:

With the growing importance of sustainability brought to the forefront by the Paris Climate Conference in December, the addition of the Green Roof on our campus, the idea of global citizenship in curriculum, and the Houses supporting environmental NGOs, there is now a need to demonstrate that we are a progressive educational institution, a space of innovation, whose strength and reputation is derived from its members practicing what they preach. Students, staff, parents and Senior Administration should take deliberate efforts to mitigate their impact on sustainability in school activities by adopting appropriate, consistent practices and habits in the use of air conditioning, paper, classroom resources, food, waste generation and other aspects.

Here are the current initiatives (2017+) being developed by a multi-stakeholder group of staff leadership, staff, students, parents called the School Environmental Education Development (SEED) committee; which meets every 4-6 weeks to discuss progress towards our environmental sustainability goals:

  • exploring ways to help CDNIS approach carbon-neutrality through forest preservation & reforestation projects
  • reducing post-consumer food waste and develop opportunities for on-site composting
  • address catering & packaged food waste due to lack of authentic recycling opportunities in HK
  • develop waste sorting & recycling management scheme for paper, metal, plastics, glass, e-waste & stationary

If you are interested in supporting these initiatives, please contact the co-chairs of the SEED committee, Smriti Safaya & Brent MacEachern.

UPDATES ABOUT ELECTRICITY USAGE (the latest):

JAN-MAR 2019: A slight increase of 0.9% when compared to the same period the year before (Jan-Mar 2018)

  • compare the blue line (now) to the green line (2017)

AUG-DEC 2018: A savings of 7.4% or ~HK$70,000 when compared to the same period the year before (Aug-Dec 2017)

  • compare the blue line (now) to the green line (2017)

AUG-SEP 2018:  A savings of 3% when compared to the same period the year before (Aug-Sep 2017)

  • compare the blue line (now) to the green line (2017)

JAN-MAR 2018: A savings of 9.1% from the same time the year before (Jan-Mar 2018 vs. Jan-Mar 2017)

 

OCT-DEC 2017: A savings of 9.4% from the same period the year before (Oct-Dec 2017 vs. Oct-Dec 2016)

See how we are doing right now with regards to our electricity consumption!

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