Written by: Danial Siddiqi, Economics and Business Studies Teacher
The ‘Stop Single Use Shanghai’ committee (SSUS) was established in 2018 with the aim being to reduce the consumption of single use plastics at the Century Park Campus. The students leading this initiative (Ann Huang, Oufan Li, Kevin Du, Bobby Cheung, Hayley Chu and Mary Liu) have already achieved a number of successes including the introduction of a cold drinks dispenser in the school, thereby reducing the number of plastic bottles purchased. They have also led a strong advocacy and behavioral change campaign to encourage students and staff to think more carefully about their decisions regarding single use items.
In recent weeks, the students were able to take their campaign further and establish it as a movement across the whole organisation. Working together as a team, the students drafted a two-page action plan calling for the establishment of a ‘Green School’ policy. This letter was sent to Dr. Betty Chan and the Executive Board. Dr. Chan was so impressed with the suggestions that she arranged for the plan to be sent to all the Yew Chung and Yew Wah schools within the organization, so that their School Leadership Teams (SLTs) could also look to explore ways to reduce consumption of single use products. This is a fantastic achievement and all down to the tenacity and passion of our students!
One member of the Executive Board, Jimmy Ji and some of his team came to Century Park Campus to meet with the SSUS team. Together with members of the Eco Committee, the students delivered a presentation summarizing their achievements and outlining future plans. Mr. Ji wasso impressed with the students thathe promised to support the campaign further next year to ensure it achieves its vision of minimizing single use plastic use in schools.
It has been a pleasure to work with such a passionate group of students who are determined to make changes to ensure our school and the whole organization operate in a more sustainable way. The changes they have implemented have already made a big difference at CP campus and I look forward to working with them as they seek to make further reductions in our single use consumption across YCIS Pudong and at home in the next academic year.