Helping to save the planet bit by bit: 2014 RCHK Garden Fair
By Sim Hoekstra
Last week Saturday (29th of november), RCHK looked a little green (excuse the pun). All over the campus parents and students were seen holding pots of plants and flowers. So how did this have to do with helping saving the planet? Well, it all can be explained in one word: sustainability. Sustainability has become a conversational word, no longer one that you hear so little of. And fair enough - we as humans are ruining the planet, and only fairly recently have these conversations involving sustainability and the future of the planet become more serous. The dictionary defines sustainability as “conserving an ecological balance by avoiding depletion of natural resources.” Simply put, we have the responsibility to give back to the environment, to create a balance with what we are taking and what we are giving back, to prevent irreversible damage and to keep this planet from falling into ruin. So how does this have to do with our school fair? For this years fair, RCHK has tried to give back to the environment. The theme was for this years school fair was “RCHK is Blooming”. Parents and students were asked to grow plants or flowers, and bring them in for the school fair. The school fair was carpeted with plants, and in the end they were sold to new homes. Thanks to the efforts of the sustainability team, and of course all the parents and students who took part, RCHK was greener for the day, with more oxygen produced than usual. However, that was not all the team had planned for the school fair, to make it more sustainable than the years before.
A volunteer at the recycling bins
Photo by Kelsie Leveille
The sustainability team have been working hard to promote sustainability in RCHK as a whole. Over the years, they have brought Meat Free Monday to school, recycling teams, recycling bins in classrooms and more. The school fair was another chance for them to show what they could do. At the school fair, when you have hundreds of visitors coming to one place, a lot of trash is produced. Many of this can be recycled, but often visitors might not know which bin is the right one. To combat misplacing of trash and to recycle as much as possible, the sustainability team not only added more recycling bins to the existing ones, they placed volunteers as well, to help visitors place trash in the correct bins. Lastly, the sustainability team also had a small game to be played. The player was confronted with numerous product packages, and was asked to separate the products based on whether they had palm oil in them or not. This was to raise awareness of palm oil, of which the industry has been linked to major environmental issues, including deforestation, climate change, animal cruelty and habitat degradation. The steps that the sustainability team and RCHK have taken to make the school fair more sustainable will have made a difference to our planet, however small. The steps are baby steps, but next year, it is safe to say, bigger changes are expected.
By Sim Hoekstra
