By Oscar So and Tony Lim

Nature Works was a broad-based engagement programme and sustainability competition designed for secondary students across Hong Kong to develop their leadership and entrepreneurship skills within the context of improving sustainability.

The competition took place from April to October last year, allowing students to build pathways to future careers while creating real-world environmental initiatives that could improve their school's environmental practices. Students from different schools around Hong Kong competed against each other to make a significant improvement towards their schools’ sustainability practices. The winning team were awarded HKD 10,000 to scale up the proposed initiative. 

Students first had to identify a problem at their school and how to measure the impacts. Over the summer, all the participants were invited to a week-long training camp, which included workshops and field trips, to gain leadership and entrepreneurship skills. Finally, using all the gathered data, they had to propose a solution in a four minute presentation in front of various judges, all of whom are involved in sustainability businesses. This program was led by the English School Foundation (ESF) alongside RCHK alumni passionate about sustainability.

After the competition, we interviewed the leaders and members of the Renaissance College Sustainability team — Year 12 students Hitanshi Jain and Ivan Suen respectively — about the competition, and sustainability in general.

How has the Sustainability team allowed Renaissance College to become more sustainable? 

[The sustainability team] has allowed the RCHK community to be introduced to the issues surrounding sustainability such as paper waste, plastic waste, energy waste, and lack of greenery. We host yearly events that students from both primary and secondary participate in: for example, PPP day (NO paper, NO plastic utensils, and NO plastic cups), as well as hosting weekly recycling and gardening sessions that are led by the team and its volunteers. Furthermore, we have taken part in many projects internally and externally as well as collaborated with sustainable organizations that help make RCHK a more sustainable place.

How much further do you think Renaissance College has to go before it becomes sustainable in terms of energy usage?

I think RC has a long way before it can be fully sustainable in terms of its energy usage. Over the summer, new LED lights were implemented in every secondary class by the BEAM Jockey club. This helps reduce the energy usage in each classroom and is a step forward in terms of becoming sustainable. We are currently brainstorming more ideas on how we could reduce the energy consumption at school by tracking “Entrak” an online energy tracker that tracks the electricity usage on campus. Furthermore, the BEAM project has supplied our school with educational material that will be introduced to some students to educate them on some problems related to energy consumption through fun, educational material. 

How has Renaissance College evolved in the 16 years of its existence?

RCHK has evolved a lot over the past 16 years in terms of the clubs it has, facilities, and opportunities for students. Over the past few years, RCHK’s Sustainability has grown in size and gained more recognition across all ESF schools. For example, some of RCHK’s alumni installed solar panels on the roof and were invited to talk about it in ESF (link). Many other schools were impressed and wanted help implementing solar panels at their school too. The actions RCHK takes towards becoming more sustainable also positively influences other schools.  We still have a long way to go, but these small steps are what bring us closer to what we aim to get. For example, some of RCHK’s alumni installed solar panels on the roof and were invited to talk about it in ESF. Many other schools were impressed and wanted help implementing solar panels at their school too. The actions RCHK takes towards becoming more sustainable also positively influences other schools.  We still have a long way to go, but these small steps are what bring us closer to what we aim to get. 

How is the sustainability team helping the school? 

I thinks that this club is not only helping RCHK become more sustainable but it is helping students that are passionate about making a change find a way to display their passion by joining this club and creating change. Our main focus isn’t only to reduce plastic and paper usage but to also educate our community on the importance of doing such things.

Relative to other schools, is Renaissance College sustainable?

I believe that RCHK is quite sustainable in comparison to other schools, as we do have solar panels and also an online system to track energy usage. However, we still do waste a lot of paper and energy by keeping lights and zircons on in classes after school. These small actions lead to greater consequences. I think our school is more aware of sustainability-related issues which are better in comparison to other students in schools that don’t know the importance of recycling. But at the end of the day, it’s not only about saying but about converting those words into actions to benefit the environment

After the recent sustainability competition, how do you think RCHK did?

I think that the RCHK Natureworks team did pretty well since our idea was well-received by the judging panel; the idea of implementing motion sensors in the classrooms was lauded to be efficient to combat our problem. However, the overall presentation could have been improved — most particularly the way we conducted our pilot data, since we were unable to install the motion sensors, and had to come up with alternative ways to simulate what installing the motion sensors would do to the energy consumption in the classroom. Despite the difficulties and challenges, we overcame them as a team by being able to persevere. In the end, we did the best we could and are proud of what we presented.

What further steps have to be taken?

In terms of sustainability, RCHK has been very active in bringing initiatives into action (e.g. solar panels on the roof). However, due to COVID, the sustainability team hasn't been able to do much recently. The next steps would be to reboot the sustainability team and make it active again so that RCHK can continue to thrive for a sustainable campus. We will continue to look into the implementation of motion sensors as well as other alternatives that could help the energy usage at RCHK.