British Council Climate Cool Program 2010 Application

Heidi A.Y.

Name Heidi Au Yeung

Age 14
Grade 10
School West Island School
Mobile
Contact Details

9751 7373
Email heidiauyeung@gmail.com
School Address West Island School, 250 Victoria
Road
Pok Fu Lam, Hong Kong
Home Address 2E Block 28 South Horizons
Ap Lei Chau, Hong Kong

A. Student Profile
 British Council
Climate change has been one of my greatest concerns ever since I learnt about Climate
it fromCool Program
Al Gore's An2010 Application
Heidi A.Y.
Inconvenient Truth 4 years ago. In addition, 4 years ago I began dinghy sailing, you might be wondering why
I’ve brought this up, but this activity has shown me the beauty of the earth and the damaging we have made.
Sailing is one of those activities where you could emerge yourself into the environment, feeling care-free and
thoroughly relaxed, and it is whilst doing that I could see Hong Kong from a different view. Living within Hong
Kong, you don’t really see the pollution, but by taking a step back you could see the clouds of pollution settling
above the horizon, above the city and the mountains shaved from their trees.

Understanding that people rely on facts and figures more than just speech, I’ve been trying to gather
knowledge from other videos, documentaries and books about Earth ever since. Through them I’ve gained
greater knowledge on how the Earth works, how we have tipped the balance and how climate change has
affected it. Through my minimal knowledge I've been trying to spread the concern in aim of persuading others
to be aware and take action too.

My parents and friends even calls me an 'environmental freak', that is whenever I insist on recycling waste or
urge them to take small actions to fight climate change. And as I believe in leading by example, these are
things I do as a habit. These actions range from printing double sided to emailing businesses to be more
conscience of the environment in their actions, such as persuading NWFB company to raise the temperature of
their air-conditioning, as it is often unnecessarily cold and I have learnt that for every degree we raise above
22.2ºC, we could reduce carbon emissions by 121 pound in a year. That is sufficient to light a 100-watt bulb for
691 hours!

Something I've noticed over the years through projects and studies on people's attitude towards climate
change
I believeiswith
thatthe
they are and
skills aware of the issue,
deepened but noton
knowledge motivated to takefrom
climate change action.
theAnd other's simply haven't been
taught about it and doesn't care.
camp and a widened horizon on the effect of climate change, I could motivate
others or as a community to take action with more confidence and strength. It’s
not doubt that I am not made perfect, but I was made to try my best. And I will
try my best to achieve the goal of fighting climate change through teaching
others so that they may have Greener Minds, influencing them to take
Greener Actions and so building a Greener Society.
B. Personal (459 words)
 British Council Climate Cool Program 2010 Application
Heidi A.Y.

Babies gets carried around when they were born. But

as they learn and strengthen they start to crawl and
then they start to walk; taking small steps at first but
these grow into larger steps and eventually they learn
how to run. The process of learning may be hard, but it
will definitely become easy, effortless actions with
practice.

Bringing green changes into a school is similar, a school must first

understand the problem to be motivated. From then they could begin to
take smaller changes which grows larger over time and eventually they
may influence others as a school, leading by example of how a
community could be green.

C. Proposal
 British Council Climate Cool Program 2010 Application
Heidi A.Y.

Earth Day : The birth of a greener school.

We could begin all green actions at West Island School with an
Earth Day. On this day, students and teachers would be educated
about Climate Change. Furthermore, every action taken during that
day should consider the impact it has on Earth, this would
demonstrate how daily habits could fight Climate Change.

For example, student and teachers should bring in their own

cutlery and container for food. If not, they have to be charged an
additional amount to be provided with it. In addition, all printings
made should be double sided or on recycled paper, all rubbish must
be recycled if possible and air-conditioning should not be used.

We could also alter the core lessons of that day. For example, in
Maths, we could calculate the carbon footprint of the school and
the impact it has had on Earth. In Science, we could learn about the
cause and effect of Global warming, in English we could write
campaign letters to businesses and the government, in PE we
could plant plants on the roof or even collaborate the wider
community to plant trees in the surrounding area..

Through
C. Proposal these
events, both students and teachers could learn more
about Climate Change, our responsibility and the possible solutions

Learning to crawl
to fight it.
 British Council Climate Cool Program 2010 Application
Heidi A.Y.

To take fighting climate change to the next step, we could pledge

as a community to fight climate change by turning the small
Pledgepractices mentioned previously into habits.

This could be achieved through setting school policies. Such as

doing things electronically whenever possible and making
Policies printing a last resort. And if things have to be printed, it has to be
double sided. Furthermore, we could make the charge for
cutleries and containers into a long term scheme.

In addition a Rewarding Scheme for the greenest tutor group

Rewards could be introduced, to create an incentive for students and
teachers to be green. This could be done by giving house (Dynasty)
points for every green action.

C. Proposal

Small steps

To make West Island School a green school in the long
run, we could…
Converting the turf into real grass. Install ceiling fans instead of
GREENING OUR ROOF
CEILING FANS
relying on air-conditioning
By converting the turf into real grass, we
are making use of the sunlight and
rainwater that usually falls onto the roof
whilst giving back to the environment as
oxygen is released and carbon dioxide (one
of the main factors of Global Warming) is
absorbed as the grass photosynthesizes.
At the same time, a green roof will also help
insulate the building, minimizing the need
for air-conditioning or heating and reduces
Urban Heat Island. Furthermore, it can also
improve air quality.
+
+ =
C. Proposal
Large Steps
British Council Climate Cool Program 2010 Application
Heidi A.Y.
Not only does ceiling fans allow air
ventilation, it will also create an
alternative for the energy consuming air
conditionings. Stan Cox, a scientist at
the Land Institute, Kansas, reported that
an average air-con in the United States
produces 3300 pounds of carbon each
year and this could easily be what
occurs in HK. On the other hand, a fan
requires less than half the energy
needed to operate and therefore
produces half the carbon emission of
using an air-con.
 British Council Climate Cool Program 2010 Application
Heidi A.Y.
To make West Island School a green school in the long
run, we could…
Making use of renewable resources Printing is almost inevitable in
RENEWABLE POWER SOURCE

PRINTING ECO
instead of relying on fossil fuels. school, but we could still fight
Instead of solely relying on energy provided climate change by using recycled
by electric companies, where electricity is paper.
mainly generated from burning fossil fuels, Each ton (2000 pounds) of recycled
we could obtain energy from a reliable and paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons
renewable source – the sun. of oil, three cubic yards of landfill
space, 4000 kilowatts of energy, and
7000 gallons of water. By saving 17
Instead of abandoning the roof’s shelter, we
trees, we are preventing 2,500
could cover it with solar panels. Although it
pounds of carbon being emitted, by
may not be sufficient to supply the saving 40000kilowatts of energy we
electricity demand for the entire school, it are preventing 5480 pounds of carbon
will indefinitely reduce the carbon-emission to be released.
produced by relying on non-renewable
resources.

C. Proposal

Large Steps
 British Council Climate Cool Program 2010 Application
Heidi A.Y.

West Island School’s mission is to ‘Inspire students to

become global citizens’ and one of our motto is ‘A
Better School, A Better World’. A Global citizen is
anyone who makes the world a better place, in other
words, considering the impact of each action.
By educating students about climate change and by influencing them to
take action is inspiring them to become global citizens, and making
West Island School a greener school is making us a better school and so
creating a better world.

C. Proposal

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