{"id":21698,"date":"2023-02-07T14:16:08","date_gmt":"2023-02-07T06:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/?p=21698"},"modified":"2023-02-07T14:16:08","modified_gmt":"2023-02-07T06:16:08","slug":"student-led-green-action-week-taking-small-steps-towards-a-more-sustainable-lifestyle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/news\/2023\/02\/07\/student-led-green-action-week-taking-small-steps-towards-a-more-sustainable-lifestyle\/","title":{"rendered":"Student-led Green Action Week: Taking Small Steps Towards a More Sustainable Lifestyle"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p><strong>IN BRIEF | 15 min read<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>During NUS SAVE\u2019s inaugural Green Action Week, over 140 NUS students discovered different fun and fulfilling ways to incorporate climate-conscious behaviours into their day-to-day lives.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<hr \/>\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/3.4processingandrecycling-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" \/><\/p>\r\n<p>From cleaning beaches and redistributing unwanted food, to repurposing old clothes and plastic waste, over 140 NUS students learnt that there are many different ways to do their part for the environment, during NUS SAVE\u2019s (Students\u2019 Association for Visions of the Earth) inaugural Green Action Week held in December 2022. NUS SAVE, which recently celebrated its 30<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0anniversary, is an environmental student group that seeks to work with fellow students, the University administration, and other NUS stakeholders to inspire a more sustainable culture on campus.<\/p>\r\n<p>Third-year FASS student Vania Xu (<a href=\"\/ecs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NUS Economics<\/a> and <a href=\"\/psy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NUS Psychology<\/a>) who is the current Co-President of <a href=\"https:\/\/nussavewrites.wordpress.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NUS SAVE (Students&#8217; Association for Visions of the Earth)<\/a>, shared that the diverse line-up of activities for Green Action Week \u2013 from volunteering sessions and workshops to guided tours \u2013 were planned with the aim of exposing the NUS community to the myriad of ways that individuals can incorporate sustainable practices into their everyday lives.<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cWith our very first Green Action Week, we wanted to show people that there isn\u2019t only one way to lead a more sustainable lifestyle. You can engage in activities that suit your own personal habits and interests, and that also happen to be good for the environment,\u201d Vania said.<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cIt was heartening to meet so many like-minded individuals who are passionate about sustainability during the course of the week,\u201d she added.<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>Volunteering for the Good of the Environment<br \/><\/strong>Thirty-seven student volunteers led by NUS SAVE\u2019s Biodiversity team set out on a clean-up activity at Pasir Ris beach \u2013\u2013 and ended up collecting a staggering 270 kg worth of trash ranging from plastic food packaging, drink bottles, and even huge signboards. For many of the volunteers, it was a sobering reminder of the impact that marine litter can have on local wildlife and biodiversity.<\/p>\r\n<figure id=\"attachment_21702\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-21702\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/1.1beachclean-up-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-21702\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>NUS SAVE organised the beach clean-up activity to raise awareness about the impact that a careless buy-and-throw mindset can have on nature and local biodiversity.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<p>Another 25 student volunteers also helped to redirect and redistribute food that would otherwise have been wasted or thrown away, during an afternoon at MoNo Foods\u2019 warehouse in Chinatown. MoNo Foods is a company that takes unsold food items from suppliers and resells them at lower prices to prevent food wastage. These unsold food items are still edible and safe to consume, but need to be taken off shelves and discarded by suppliers for various reasons \u2013 for example, damages to product packaging during transportation or changes in product branding labels.<\/p>\r\n<p>Chee Koi Jun, a first-year student in the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.nus.edu.sg\/\">Faculty of Science<\/a>, was one of the volunteers who helped to sort through the large amount of food donations received by MoNo Foods from various suppliers. He shared: \u201cIt was an eye-opening experience because I could actually see the impact of my efforts \u2013 in just one afternoon, we sorted through six pallets of food donations that would otherwise have been headed for the incinerator.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>Breathing New Life into Old Clothes and Plastic Waste<br \/><\/strong>Apart from encouraging students to volunteer their time to support sustainable causes, NUS SAVE also sought to promote the ethos of sustainable consumption during Green Action Week. The group organised several workshops on upcycling and repurposing old and used items, so as to help their peers in the NUS community pick up functional tips on reducing waste and living more sustainably.<\/p>\r\n<figure id=\"attachment_21703\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-21703\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/2.3clothing-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-21703\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>At a workshop conducted by Alt.Native, participants posed with their completed half-and-half shirts, refashioned out of their own old clothing items.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<p>For example, at a \u2018Half-and-Half\u2019 workshop conducted by Alt.Native \u2013 a company founded by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/bschool.nus.edu.sg\/\">NUS Business School<\/a>\u00a0(Class of 2021) alumna Amanda Lim \u2013 15 participants learnt how to refashion two old clothing items into a unique half-and-half shirt. Alt.Native\u2019s reputation for reworking preloved clothing items into new bespoke pieces impressed participants like first-year Business School student Ramesh Babu Poornima, who shared that she signed up for the workshop because she wanted to find a creative way to reduce her fast fashion footprint while still maintaining a fashionable and trendy wardrobe.<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cIt was also useful to learn new stitching techniques \u2013 they will come in handy if I want to mend or alter clothes on my own in the future,\u201d Poornima added.<\/p>\r\n<p>To further promote the idea of sustainable fashion, NUS SAVE\u2019s Green Wardrobes team also organised a tour of six different thrift stores in Lucky Plaza. For many on the tour, it was their first foray into \u201cthrift shopping\u201d \u2013 that is, buying second-hand items (usually clothes) at discounted prices \u2013 and a welcome way to kickstart their sustainable fashion journeys.<\/p>\r\n<figure id=\"attachment_21704\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-21704\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/3.2processingandrecycling-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-21704\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>At a workshop conducted by The Plastic Project, NUS students learnt how to convert plastic waste into new reusable products.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<p>At another workshop conducted by The Plastic Project, 14 NUS participants got a taste of how the volunteer-run environmental organisation tackles plastic pollution by repurposing plastic waste into new products, such as earrings, Christmas ornaments, keychains and coasters \u2013 and even churned out some 40 brand new carabiners. All of the organisation\u2019s signature products are made of recycled plastics of Type 2 (HDPE) and 5 (PP), collected from community donations and beach clean-ups.<\/p>\r\n<p>Volunteer Chelsea Ooi, who has helped out at The Plastic Project for over half a year, said that more experienced volunteers usually target to make 40 to 50 carabiners per hour. The first-year Business School student added that she was drawn to The Plastic Project because she shares its vision for creating a circular economy and promoting mindful consumption.<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cI also like that they came up with a creative solution to reduce plastic waste, by upcycling it into new products,\u201d commented Chelsea.<\/p>\r\n<hr \/>\r\n<p><em>This story by <i>NUS SAVE <\/i>first appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/news.nus.edu.sg\/student-led-green-action-week\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NUSnews<\/a> on 6 February 2023.<\/em><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During NUS SAVE\u2019s inaugural Green Action Week, over 140 NUS students discovered different fun and fulfilling ways to incorporate climate-conscious behaviours into their day-to-day lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":21701,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[119,130,6],"tags":[150],"class_list":["post-21698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-departments","category-geography","category-visible","tag-op-ed"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21698"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21698"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21708,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21698\/revisions\/21708"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}