YCIS believes fostering environmental consciousness is an important part of students’ education and shall be implemented not only in their study but also in their everyday life.

From this semester onwards, YCIS Chongqing is trying to reduce their food waste as part of many strategies the school will undertake to improve the school’s sustainability.

The project begins with a series “environmentally conscious” activities in campus and will soon be joined by other initiatives to make YCIS Chongqing a more sustainable part of our wider community.

Students are encouraged to think about what they pack for their lunch, how much food they ask for and what food they can save for another meal. Two bins are set in the canteen to have an ongoing weekly house competition to see which house wastes the least food during their daily lunch. Weekly weighing is facilitated by the aiyis and 100 points will be awarded to the winning house fortnightly. Grey bins in the canteen have been designated ‘Dry Waste Bins’. Everyone places their wrappers, bottles, paper plates, etc., into the grey bins but absolutely no food. The next step in the initiative is to appropriately recycle these materials.

All students were invited to make posters to be used to decorate the canteen to remind everyone not to waste food. Students also decorated their house bins for easy identification.

All teachers and staff have participated in this competition as well via a staff bin which is also weighed. They have also contributed both in class and around the campus, as well as setting example for our students and each other. Teaching students how to politely ask for less food from the canteen staff in mandarin and plan their meals was a key tool delivered in form time to help the student participation.

We thank all who help and support this initiative, and also congratulate our students on their actions and encourage them to continue. Initial results indicate that as a school, YCIS Chongqing may be able to reduce their food waste by half. As always, leading by example (with a little healthy competition) should be a great help to maintain some of the momentum for this energetic semester!

Reducing food waste is not our final goal, promoting the concept of protecting the earth and saving more lives is what we have been trying to educate our students. They will be the 21st century global citizens to face the future environmental challenges. Moving forward, YCIS Chongqing has plans for saving electricity, recycling and appropriately disposing of non-food waste as compost via a student-run school vegetable plot.

At YCIS Chongqing, each one of us plays a role of environmental ambassador to influence people around them, and that’s what we will be continuing aiming for!