Recently, two of our very own bullgirls were nominated for the Green Council’s Eco-Friend Award 2018! 🏆🏆
They are…
Cady Li from 18S6K,
and Rachel Tey from 18A14!
The award is presented to individuals who do good for the environment and inspire others to do the same. 🌱 We spoke to them about their passion for the environment and how YOU too can help save our earth! 🌍
Cady
Tell us a bit about yourself in general!
hey I’m Cady and I love to constantly improve myself and make small changes in my own way 🙂
What environmental causes are you passionate about?
Reducing unnecessary one time use waste like plastic bags, takeaway containers etc
What motivates you to go green?
The people around me who are doing a lot more than I am in going green! I think there are many people who are doing environmental projects and also turning vegan/vegetarian for the environment. They inspire me to start to do my own small part for the earth too. And also, I think we can all start to feel the disastrous impacts of global warming in news, and even just in our daily lives. it makes me feel a greater urgency to take action and care for our environment too.
What do you do in your daily life to save the environment?
I try to make small changes to my own lifestyle 🙂 i try to do my part by bringing bamboo cutlery, metal straws and a cloth bag with me most of the time so I don’t have to use disposable ones/plastic bags. I also try to use bread bags to put my bfast! (a small tip for those from sports CCAs or regularly use plastic bags to store their clothes: use free draw string bags that are given out at events for training attires instead of plastic bags for every session — i use two draw string bags for my training clothes, one for after training clothes & the other for clean ones so they are can be constantly used 🙂 )
What initiatives have you embarked on in the past? Are there currently any projects you’re working on?
Not at the moment :3 I hope to do my own part and start changing my own habits that may be damaging to the environment before I start changing things around me. I am currently trying to reduce meat intake and my own food waste!
What do you think your fellow bullboys and bullgirls can do to save the environment?
Be more conscious of how our lifestyle is damaging the environment and insert small changes to your lifestyle through simple steps! eg by trying to practise the 3Rs 🙂
Rachel
Hello fellow Apollo friends, I’m Rachel Tey:-) I’m part of @hc_green (yes pls give us a follow) and more about me is that i’m a humans student and outside of my green life & projects i like to watch movies and spending time with people! The idea of community is vv important to me, which is why i like doing things in grps and encouraging ppl to find things they are passionate in or find joy in
A lot of people have been asking me: Why environment? Most of what I do/ what you can do comes with the realisation that we, the biggest benefactors of the earth are actl the ones unknowingly contributing to most of the harm and destruction that someone at the other end of the globe has to suffer through:-( I felt like I couldn’t live knowing that in many parts of the world, they don’t get the resources and luxury to run away from the environmental harms like we do (taking shelters in aircon malls from the heat, air pollution)—yet they probably contribute the least to environment damage.
A year ago I made a friend from Mongolia who was in Singapore for medical treatment, and she shared that where she came from, they were going through a rough period of time with their livelihoods. Which surprised me, because they get by like the normal farm scenes we see in the movies–free-roaming livestock, growing their own plants for food and sale (seems super chill right).
What’s interesting is that because they have 4 seasons, their livestock need to fatten up before winter for hibernation. However, due to climate change, their rainfall patterns have been irregular and their crops, for the animals to feed on, haven’t grown sufficiently. Because of that, their animals can’t get the sufficient food to hibernate, sadly meaning they eventually die off halfway through winter, such that they can’t even be eaten (because an animal dying of sickness isn’t safe for consumption!)
Because the families there don’t have enough food to eat, or income from selling their livestock, they turn to alcohol and gambling to solve their problems. Social problems like domestic violence and homelessness are common amongst the children there.
I felt indignant for them: their lifestyles are the most gentle towards their environment, they use minimal energy (sometimes none), they are plastic-free all year, they live not just in but amongst nature–felt like they were not deserving of this violent retaliation.
As I heard the story from my new friend, I couldn’t help but feel it really wasn’t fair. It felt wrong that while us, the city of disposables and 9-5 air con, the forced-fit garden city/ city in a garden could remain so ignorant of these everyday disasters happening somewhere else on the globe, at a place who’d been so innocent in this crime being committed.
So what I’m trying to do, personally is start with being more conscious about my choices–from whether I should buy this clothing to how much toilet paper I use, every single thing used will end up translating into some form of wastage for us, even if it’s biodegradable or recyclable or sounds eco-friendly, the first and most helpful step lies in reducing! I urge everyone to view each decision you make as a reflection of what you stand for: do you really need that in takeaway? Could you perhaps carry it in your hands instead of taking the plastic bag? Or maybe you choose to turn off the air con when you are alone in the classroom?
What’s coming up next:
Green Council has a lot in store for you guys next year—we will be touching on topics of your fashion, your aircon, your recycling, your diet, your backyard (and more)! Beyond the school community, we are trying to extend our reach into other schools and youth groups by organising conferences bringing groups together to draw energy and passion off each other, bounce ideas and build supportive networks, and super excited for that:D
What stays constant to my beliefs is that everyone has something they are passionate in and that the power of bringing passion together makes incredible things happen:”D If any of this post spoke to you, you want to know more or if you’re feeling bored during the holidays and you want to work on something meaningful (perhaps environmental-related, maybe not), hit me up @rachelteyy
Even if you aren’t looking for commitment, see these small steps as your responsibility as guests to this world: buying things shouldn’t be a habit, it should be a promise and a loss; throwing things away shouldn’t be a norm, it should be a punishment and ignorance doesn’t make the problem go away
— thank you for reading!
Thank you Cady and Rachel for taking the time to share your stories with us! 💚 We hope this inspires other bullgirls and bullboys out there to begin taking steps to save our environment together. 👣
☀️ Apollo Faculty Committee 18/19
Apollo Faculty 