Apr – Jun 2017

Recognition

03 Lights off for a brighter future. HKBU receives the “Platinum Award” in recognition of energy savings mandated by the Charter on External Lighting

01 Energy-savings and innovative design. HKBU receives “Hanson Outstanding Award” (Energy Saving Championship Scheme)

Sustainable Campus

Promotion

04 Rock your lunch hour –join BU Hour 1300

05 Combat Climate Change Starts With Me: HKBU Supports Hong Kong Green Day 2017

02 Moving out? Don’t ditch it, donate it!

03 Walk the Talk – Green Campus Tour with overseas delegates

01 #STRAWSNOMORE

02 Accurate metrics make for active management. Waste Check Promotional Partner Award “Class of Excellence”

Community Engagement

01 Plant for the planet 02 Discovering the “missing link”: polyfoam recycling!

03 Protect our ocean, we need your action!

04 Stop buying! Start making your own fashionable accessories!

05 Getting muddy on the weekend – BUGS Organic Farm Fun Day

06 Green policies and community engagement

01 Energy-savings and innovative design. HKBU receives “Hanson Outstanding Award” (Energy Saving Championship Scheme) from the HKSAR government

HKBU recently won the 2016 “HansonOutstanding Award” (Post-Secondary EducationInstitution category) awarded via the EnergySaving Championship Scheme organised by theHKSAR Environment Bureau.

HKBU received its commendation for designinnovation, hardware upgrades, and resultingverified energy savings achieved by our JockeyClub School of Chinese Medicine Building. Built oncampus and accessible for staff and student usesince 2013, the Jockey Club School of ChineseMedicine Building incorporates a variety of energy-saving technologies, optimises venue utility, andenhances overall energy efficiency. The success ofthe building design has resulted in a remarkableaggregate energy savings of over 450,000 kWhsince 2013 – equivalent to the electricityconsumption of 90 households per year.

Recognition

24 May 2017

The award winner, The JockeyClub School of Chinese MedicineBuilding nestled among otherbuildings on the HKBU campus.

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Committed to building a low-carbon campus and promoting sustainability among allstakeholders of the University community, HKBU has undertaken innovative measuresand initiatives in order to attain energy savings and waste reduction. Our efforts havepaid off in recent months, as we are delighted to announce that the University hasrecently been awarded several prizes in recognition of our sector-leading efforts.

03 Lights off for a brighter future. HKBU receives the “Platinum Award” in recognition of energy savings mandated by the Charter on External Lighting

02 Accurate metrics make for active management. Waste Check Promotional Partner Award “Class

of Excellence”26 May 2017

15 Jun 2017

As an environmentally-consciouseducational institution, HKBU was an earlyand ardent supporter of the Charter ofExternal Lighting launched by the HKSAREnvironment Bureau. The University waspresented with the “Platinum Award” inrecognition of its achievement in supportof the “switch-off” mandate required by theCharter, by turning off all external lightingfrom 11 pm to 7 am daily which minimisesenergy consumption.

In recognition of its sustained commitment towaste reduction during 2016-17, HKBU waspresented with the Waste Check PromotionalPartner Award certificate “Class of Excellence”under the Waste Check Charter launched by theHKSAR Environmental Protection Department.

The Waste Check Charter promotes wastereduction within the commercial and industrialsectors by means of strict and verifiablemeasurement of waste disposables andrecyclables collected, including establishingeffective waste-reduction targets.

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Sustainable Campus Promotion01 #STRAWSNOMORE20 Apr & 8 June 2017

HKBU

Beginning during the second semester of academic year 2016-17, the “No StrawMovement” encouraged all HKBU students and staff to stop using plastic straws incampus catering facilities by means of a series of outreach and engagement activities.

Thanks to the support from theuniversity community, including fromour campus caterers and vendors,around 15,000 disposable plasticstraws were conserved throughoutthe second semester, resulting in asavings of plastic equivalent to 7.5times around a 400m standardrunning track!

Students participating in the #STRAWSNOMORE challenge receive a free, reusable glass straw.

In addition to organising the two “No Straw Days”(held on 17 March 2017 at the Main Canteenand on 20 April 2017 at BU Fiesta), HKBUSustainability continued to promote alternativesto the use of disposable straws, such asreusable glass straws, which were given to thosejoining the campus-wide promotional challengeon 8 June 2017 in support of parallel initiativessuch as World Ocean Day and “No Straw Day”(initiated by the Ocean Park ConservationFoundation).

Participants sharing the “No Straw Day” post on theHKBU Sustainability Facebook page, and “tagging”three friends saying “no” to disposable straws,receive a free reusable glass straw.

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02 Moving out? Don’t ditch it, donate it!8-12, 24-25 May 2017

Student Residence Halls, HKBU

During the end of term move-out period, students from HKBU residence halls areencouraged to donate their unwanted but still usable items— such as electricalappliances, stationery, kitchen utensils, non-frozen food, clean beddings and pillows—doing so offers unwanted household items a second life, instead of sending themdirectly to the landfill.

Students bring unwanted itemsto our HKBU Sustainabilitycounter for donation.

Around 90 pieces of usableitems were collected from thestudent hall residences.

The HKBU Sustainability counter at the North Tower Entranceof the student dormitories during 8 to 12, 24 and 25 August2017 made it easy for students to donate or recycle anyunwanted items. Around 90 pieces of functional and recyclableitems were collected and will be redistributed to new comers, atno extra charge, at the Free Market to be held on campusduring the Fall semester.

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03 Walk the Talk – Green Campus Tour with overseas delegates

26 May 2017HKBU

On 26 May 2017, HKBUSustainability co-organiseda Green Campus Tour withthe International Officeintroducing our “green”campus and its on-goingsustainability initiatives toguests and representativesfrom the Union ChristianCollege in the Philippines.

Visitors are inspired bythe large variety of herbsfound in the BU herbalgarden.

Delegates ride energy-generating bikes at theBU Green Corner.

04 Rock your lunch hour – join BU Hour 1300

How do you usually spend your lunch hour on working days? Do you eat your lunch atyour desk and then take a nap afterwards? To encourage colleagues to get out of theiroffices during lunch hour, for a little bit of needed physical and mental relaxation, and atthe same time to switch off non-essential electrical appliances (in order to conserveenergy and reduce carbon emissions), a BU Hour 1300 lunchtime workshop series onsustainability-related topics was held during May and June 2017. Topics includednatural skincare, greening, vegetarian diet and upcycling.

Colleagues learn to makechemical-free skin essence usingsnow fungus and essential oil.

Natural Skincare Workshop

17,24,26 May & 1,2,7 Jun 2017HKBU

A majority of store-bought and commercially-produced skincare products are manufactured usingartificial colours, preservatives, fragrances andstabilisers. They may also contain animal productsand other allergenic substances that can cause long-term negative health and environmental impacts.

Natural body scrub made with three readily-obtained ingredients: used coffee grounds, seasalt and organic coconut oil.

To educate colleagues about how to soothe skinwithout using chemical products, a natural skincareworkshop was organised on campus, where theylearned how to make their own coffee ground-bodyscrub as well as snow-fungus skin essence using100% natural ingredients!

17 May 2017

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The delegates enjoyed visits to our recycling facilities, our BU green roofs, the herbalgarden and the upcycled furniture in our BU Green Corner. They were also inspired byour on-going efforts to upgrade the energy efficiency of the University hardware, as wellas when promoting greener campus life-styles through sustainable campus promotion.

03 Walk the Talk – Green Campus Tour with overseas delegates (con’t)

Mushroom Micro-landscape Bottle Making Workshop

Vegetarian Rice Dumpling Workshop

Want to add a tint of green at your office, but prefersomething more fetching than another potted plant? Howabout creating a mushroom, micro-landscape bottle? Over40 HKBU colleagues participated in the micro-landscape,bottle-making workshop on campus on 24 May and 7 June2017, showcasing their creativity when decorating uniquemushroom micro-landscape bottles. With adequate care, thebottle may even yield edible mushrooms!

Traditional rice dumplings are typically stuffed withunhealthy filling. To celebrate the Dragon BoatFestival in a greener and healthier way, Star ChefChung Chi-keung, a former Executive Chef atseveral renowned Chinese restaurants in HongKong, was invited to conduct a vegetarian ricedumpling workshop for colleagues on campus.

26 May 2017

24 May & 7 Jun 2017

Colleagues follow step-by-step instructionsand create their ownunique micro-landscape bottles.

A participant’s micro-landscape bottle growshealthy edible mushrooms and catches otheroffice colleagues’ attention.

Chef Chung demonstrates how to make avegetarian rice dumpling.

Participants make rice dumplings usinghealthier, vegetarian ingredients such asbeans, chestnuts and mushrooms.

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Floral and Food Waste Tie-dye Workshop1 Jun 2017

LUSH X BU Happy Hour 1300 – Natural Skincare DIY Workshop2 Jun 2017

Traditionally, the fabric-dyeing process generates a huge amount of harmful, toxiceffluent. What if dyes were made by extracting colour pigment from floral or food waste?A tie-dye workshop, conducted by Run2Tree Creations, was organised to demonstrate tocolleagues on campus how organic dyes are created, using floral and food waste, andto provide hands-on experience with ‘greener’ dyeing techniques.

Participantssoak fabricsin naturaldyes madefrom purplecabbage.

Participants’ first dyeing experience resulted in thecreation of unique and fetching fabric patterns.

Regular LUSH bar-soap packagingminimisesunnecessary use andwaste of packaging.

LUSH package fillersare made using cornflour and potato peel,which can be dissolvedin water without harmingthe environment.

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Have you ever imaginedhand-made soap andpackage fillers can beused in a team-buildingexercise while learning“green” knowledge? At aunique lunchtimeworkshop held oncampus on 1 June 2017,hosted by LUSH,colleagues learned abouthand-made beautyproducts and made theirown cleansing masks!

05 Combating Climate Change, Starts With Me:HKBU Supports Hong Kong Green Day 2017

5 Jun 2017HKBU

What comes to your mind when you hearthe word “green”? Being eco-friendly?Pursuing a sustainable lifestyle?Environmental conservation? Saving theearth for future generations? In Hong Kong,every year on 5th June we celebrate “HongKong Green Day”, a territory-wide eventorganised by the Green Council since 2013in support of World Environment Day. Allover Hong Kong, the “green” communitygathers together in solidarity with theworldwide community to raise awarenessabout protecting our natural environment.

Two “Hong Kong Green Day Q&A • Fresh Fruits and Veggie Giveaway” counters wereset up along the Li Promenade, Shaw Campus, as well as at the L5 Podium, Ho SinHang Campus, on the event day. About 800 members of the University stopped by tosupport our initiative, by incorporating green elements into their outfits and whencompleting a green challenge. Fresh fruits and vegetables were distributed as a tokenof thanks.

In order to demonstrate its commitment toprotecting the planet, HKBU has supportedHong Kong Green Day since its inception. Inline with the theme of the 2017 Hong KongGreen Day, “Combat Climate Change, Startswith Me”, the University organised a series ofon-campus promotional events, including a“Hong Kong Green Day Q&A • Fresh Fruitsand Veggie Giveaway” and several BU Hour1300 lunchtime workshops, inspiring theUniversity community to think further abouthow we can make a positive contributionwhen combating climate change.

Participants complete the vegetarian dietchallenge and receive locally grownorganic fruits and vegetables as a prize.

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01 Plant for the planet1 & 30 Apr 2017

Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden & Tai Lam Country Park

Community Engagement

Trees play an essential role in combating climate change. They offer so much more toour ecological well-being than simply purifying the air. This spring, a total of 36 BUGSvolunteers participated in two local, tree-planting programmes organised by KadoorieFarm and Botanic Garden (on 1 April) and by Friends of the Earth (on 30 April)respectively.

Tree-planting requires coordinated teamwork, as all members have to delegatedifferent tasks such as weeding, setting tree guards, and planting seedlings.

BUGS volunteers plant a total of 80 treeseedlings at Tai Mo Shan on 1 April.

Tai Mo Shan offers terrain susceptible tofrequent wildfires and intense soil erosioncaused by rain and strong wind. Such a steeptopography makes it difficult for natural growthto anchor itself. The tree-planting programmeat Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden tacklesthis erosion problem on Tai Mo Shan directlyand educates all programme participantsabout how to address it. During the workshop,participants planted over 80 tree seedlings onthe slopes and learned basic principles abouton-going reforestation efforts in Hong Kong.

BUGS volunteers also joined the TreePlanting Challenge organised by Friends ofthe Earth. Combining hiking and treeplanting, BUGS volunteers divided into threeteams and planted a total of over 90 treeseedlings in Tai Lam Country Park. One ofour HKBU BUGS teams even won the“Second Runner-up” prize for the category,“Efficient Tree Planting Team Award”!

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1 Apr 2017Missing Link – Polyfoam Recycling Scheme, Tsuen Wan

Building from our past and positiveexperience with the Missing Link – PolyfoamRecycling Scheme in January 2017, another15 Low-carbon Ambassadors and BUGSmembers joined the service event on 1 April2017 are eager to learn about the latestabout polyfoam recycling in Hong Kong.

Volunteers visited two local wet markets inTsuen Wan in order to observe and collectdifferent types of polyfoam, such as fruit netsand polyfoam containers. Participants wereshocked to discover that over 15 bags ofpolyfoam can be collected on any single dayfrom only two local wet markets! However,due to a shortage of manpower and limitedfinancial resources committed to alternativecollection and disposal of polyfoam, the vastmajority of traditional wet markets in HongKong still regularly utilise cheap polyfoamwhich is sent directly to landfills.

Volunteers separate polyfoam accordingto their type and color outside the YeungUk Road Market in Tsuen Wan.

A vast amount of non-biodegradable fruitnet is dumped in landfills every day.

Making the matter even morechallenging, the polyfoam recyclingprocess is highly labour-intensive,hence expensive. Prior handling—removing all tapes and plastic films—isrequired before recyclers are even ableto compact polyfoams into ingots forsubsequent handling. (Onceprocessed, polyfoam ingots can be re-melted into recycled resin for furtheruse.) All workshop participants hopethat the HKSAR Government willcontinue to support the fine work of thePolyfoam Recycling Scheme as well asfurther expand the city-wide polyfoamrecycling network to all other wetmarkets in Hong Kong.

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02 Discovering the “missing link”: polyfoam recycling!

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03 Protect our ocean, we need your action!

Maintaining clean Hong Kong beaches is vital when sustaining the micro-ecology ofnear-shore and marine-species habitats. Seeking to draw attention to this issue, HKBULow-carbon Ambassadors Programme (LAMP) students initiated the Coastal CleaningProject in order to showcase the beauty of nature to the wider public, as well as toprovoke people’s awareness about the environmental protection of our seashores andtheir micro-scale habitats.

On Coastal Cleaning Day this year, eightbags of refuse, weighing a total of 27 kg, werecollected. The most commonly collectedtypes of rubbish included disposable plasticand glass bottles, microbeads, and micro-scale polystyrene debris (which are especiallyharmful, as they can be ingested at micro-scales in the food chain and also find theirway into the water table).

The urgency and scale of the problem causedparticipants to further reflect upon their dailybehaviour, as well as to think twice whenusing everyday disposable items, includingthe necessity of using products containingmicrobeads at all.

Apart from aiming to clean up localseashores, the Project seeks to trainleaders how to conduct basic scientificsampling and to identify various refusetypes in support of sustaining overallmarine and shore-side ecosystems. Inorder to equip project leaders with thenecessary skills and knowledge toconduct an effective (basic) ecologicalsurvey of common animals and plantspecies, a training session was given bya nature interpreter from WWF HongKong on 23 March 2017 in advance ofCoastal Cleaning Day on 9 April 2017.

23 Mar & 9 Apr 2017 Seashore of WWF Island House Conservation Studies Centre

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Students identify different species of snailfound on the seashore.

A tremendous haul of glass debris andpolystyrene was collected on the day.

04 Stop buying! Start making your own fashionable accessories!

Students enjoy their new handmade bags.

If you are thinking of buying a new handbag, have you ever considered simply makingyour own? What about upcycling your old, yet cherished, clothing items? Giving fabricswith sentimental value a new lease on life offers a greener way out.

13 Apr 2017 Academic and Administration Building (AAB), HKBU

05 Get muddy at weekend outdoors – BUGS Organic Farm Fun Day

20 May 2017The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups Organic Farm, Yuen Long

In acknowledgement of their outstanding efforts, selected members of BUGS weretreated to a day of fun farming at the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups OrganicFarm.

BUGS memberslearn how to cookin a backwoodssetting.

BUGS membersenjoying theirhard-earnedlow-carbonlunch!

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A group of LAMP students organised a fabricupcycling workshop on 13 April 2017 with theaim of teaching participants how to transformtheir old clothes—such as blue jeans—intohandbags of unique sizes and colorful patterns.Even participants without sewing experiencewere capable of enjoying making their ownbags in this fun and engaging workshop.

While on the farm, BUGS members had theopportunity to cook a low-carbon lunch usingsimple tools in a backwoods setting; to visitorganic farm sheds producing a variety oflocally-grown vegetables and fruits; as well asto learn about advanced organic farmingtechniques—such as the use of naturalfertiliser and pesticides, composting, andoptimal arable zoning. Each of our finest BUGSvolunteers went home having acquired newknowledge as well as a full tummy!

BUGS members plough the soil.

4 - 9 Jun 2017Taiwan

Seeking to instill a more international perspective about environmental sustainability,HKBU Sustainability selected 16 of our most dedicated LAMP 2016-17 studentvolunteers to join a six-day Taiwan Environmental Study and Service Tour in June 2017.

Mindful that the Hong Kong government isin the process of implementing its ownMunicipal Solid Waste Charging Scheme,LAMP students learned on-site aboutcomparable Taiwan-government policiesimplemented by the Shigang District andThe Promise Community in Taichung City.Participants learned that with the fullsupport and active participation ofgovernment and other local stakeholderson recycling and up-cycling initiatives, thetotal amount of municipal waste forShigang District has been reduced by over60% after implementing a reasonable anduniform waste-charging policy.

Students observe the refuse-collection system in action throughout ShigangDistrict.

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06 Green policies and community engagement

05 Get muddy at weekend outdoors – BUGS Organic Farm Fun Day (con’t)

06 Green policies and community engagement (con’t)

LAMP students also learned about the“green culture” and other environmentalsustainability practices currentlyoperating at Feng Chia University(FCU). During a one-day visit to theFCU campus, LAMP students gainedinsights about how to facilitate theimplementation of green culture atHKBU further.

A particularly interesting find during the FCU tourwas the making and use of the “loving reusablebag”—an initiative backed by the Taiwanesegovernment, which allows customers of selectedenterprises to borrow reusable bags at no cost ifthey forget to bring their own shopping bags. Thisgood practice not only serves as an effectivegreen alternative to non-biodegradable plasticbags, but also encourages environmentally-friendly behaviour. LAMP students were excited toapply these, and other, initiatives learned from ourfriends at FCU on HKBU’s home soil.

Fans are installed at FCU in order to lower theair-conditioning usage in classrooms.

Staff members from the Taiwan EnvironmentalProtection Administration make “loving reusablebags” out of old banners.

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Since food waste contributes a significant portion of all municipal waste, the governmentof Shigang District recycles all food waste and other recyclables deposited by theircitizens each and every day in order to lower the overall amount of refuse to beincinerated at cost.

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Editorial board:Prof. Stuart Christie Member of Task Force on Sustainable CampusHead, Department of English Language and Literature

Miss Florence Y.S. TamMember of Task Force on Sustainable CampusCommunications Manager, Communication and Public Relations Office