The Ecology Action Team has been extremely active at YCIS Shanghai Century Park and Regency Park campuses for the past seven years, with young environmentalists from Years 2 through13 serving as beacons of environmental stewardship, educating themselves and their peers about how they can make a difference in today’s environment.

This past month, the Eco Team led the Environment Week activities and celebration at both campuses, designed to encourage and bring awareness to the importance of caring for our environment. One way students focused their efforts during the week was to raise funds for The Million Tree project, and this year, the students raised enough money to sponsor the school’s seventh, 1,000-tree forest in Inner Mongolia!

At the beginning of the week, students were encouraged to compete in a “TREECycling House Competition”, with points earned for Houses (groups) for the amount of recyclable materials gathered. Students on both campuses were asked to bring paper items to a central location, and the heaps of paper stacked high throughout the day, with 576 kilos recycled as a result!

Another way YCIS celebrated Environment Week was through a focus on food. In an effort to call attention to the link between what we eat and the health of our planet, members of the Eco Team worked in conjunction with the school’s food service provider to include a dimension of food awareness, and to promote greater awareness to the school community. Informative menus included information about where the ingredients were sourced, how much water was used to grow them, and the carbon dioxide emissions that resulted from the whole process.

Additionally, students were encouraged to make healthy food choices and keep sustainability in mind to reduce food waste. “Waste-Free Wednesday” heightened the awareness of the importance of not wasting food and packaging. Students were asked to bring snacks and lunches that included as many reusable, edible, or recyclable items as possible, with the added message of being reminded to be waste-free all year round.

MrDaniel D’ Andrea, the founder of the Ecology Action Team and a teacher at YCIS, said “We want our students to remember that they can improve their personal health and the health of our planet with every bite they take! We are encouraging them to choose wisely, with sustainability as a priority.”

Environment Week ended with the “Green Dress Day”, which allowed all students and teachers to demonstrate their interest in and support for the environment. Henricus Peters, a teacher at YCIS and a member of the YCIS Environment Committee noted "By wearing green, YCIS students were reminded that we have a connection to the environment. Through renewed understanding and appreciation, we develop the everyday mindset of caring for our planet. That is why, at YCIS, we say GO GREEN!"

By pledging to keep sustainability in mind all year round, and by giving students the knowledge and opportunities to do so, the YCIS community is empowered to take care of the environment, creating a better future.