Inter nationa l School of Kua l a Lumpur
A Big Green Start to 2013-14! By Laurence Myers, Sustainability & Service Learning Coordinator • ISKL: Malaysia’s First Eco-Schools Green Flag Recipient The year began with a big “green” bang as, on August 30th, ISKL was honored by WWF Malaysia as the first recipient of the EcoSchools Green Flag award in South East Asia! It was a recognition for the combined efforts of everyone at ISKL, and particularly our
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students (represented by the Green Council and HS Student Council), and came at a perfect time to set the tone for a green year at ISKL. The Eco-Schools Green Flag waves proudly on both our campuses, next to the ISKL, Selangor and Malaysian flags and serves as a reminder that whatever our political, economic or religious diversity, we are all members of one community and share our beautiful planet! • International Fest Goes Green! Of course, it would be impossible to receive such a prestigious honor if it were not for our collective efforts. One such effort was that of the International Fest who decided to make “going green” its theme. This meant, of course, a presence by our Green Council and HS Earth Club – through fundraising and tree planting events – but also a clear expectation that we are moving away from single-use items. This was obvious to anyone who meandered the country tables and picked up a little of this or that for lunch. People sat down with school-issued reusable plates, bowls, cups and cutlery and the traditional paper plates and plastic forks and knives were notably missing. Given that over 1,700 visited the event, and most visit multiple tables for lunch, quick calculations would indicate that thousands of plates and cutlery were kept from heading to the landfill shortly after we called it a day. Instead, they all sit cleanly and proudly for another use in the cafeteria! By the same token, many of the traditional singleuse items, such as balloons and confetti, were absent and replaced by activities filled with laughter and positive energy. • Melawati Focuses on Waste At Melawati things are moving at a steady pace, particularly with regard to reducing waste. The Prep Reception and Prep Junior areas have, for some time, identified the use of natural, nonpackaged foods as a focal point for their snacks. The Prep Seniors have, likewise, had “Trash Free Fridays” for a few years now. This
year Prep Senior decided to move forward with a composting program during lunch as well. Thrilled with the idea, Grade 1, who shares the lunch tables with Prep Senior, decided it was worth doing also! Then, at the initiative of the Prep Senior team, the entire Melawati campus took on the initiative of Trash Free Fridays for the entire campus starting on November 15th! So, from now on the entire school will be minimizing its waste. In theory this could reduce our Melawati food waste by 20%! How wonderful! This year also brought with it the establishment of a new Recycling Club aiming to provide an action-based solution to ongoing waste in our classrooms. The members of the club are keen to recycle the paper of each classroom pod area as well as create educational presentations for their schoolmates. And, as any successful organization would do, they are now considering diversifying by spearheading a composting program at the cafeteria as well. At this rate it wouldn’t be a surprise to see all of our food being kept from the landfills soon enough! • Ampang ‘Green’ Groups Grow in Number and Reach The HS Earth Club and Green Council have been steadily working, as always, on recycling and tree planting (for the HS Earth Club) as well Eco-Schools projects (for the Green Council) such as the hydroponics garden which is almost ready to go! At the International Fest the HS Earth Club conducted two on-campus tree planting events and added 20 trees and plants to the Ampang
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campus. Their oncea-month Community Recycling Drop Off, of course, continues to be an integral part of our community as well. The Middle School also had some good news! As of the beginning of the second Trimester (which started in November) we now have a new environmentally related club; The Roots & Shoots Club. The Roots & Shoots Club will be identifying issues related to humanitarian, animal and environmental concern and working toward addressing them. The Stop Hunger Now food packaging event which took place in late September was a newly introduced project aimed at helping needy communities. Organized as an IB CAS project by a handful of HS students this program brought together over100 participants who packaged meals comprised of rice, dried vegetables, soya and vitamin supplements. The idea originally was to support GAP groups
who were visiting locations where such food would be beneficial. The event was a huge success with 20,000 meals packaged in a little under two hours and, ultimately, five GAP trips took the food with them. The event brought with it some very meaningful albeit somewhat unexpected additional benefits too; most notably the deep conversations regarding food aid to the developing world. Eventually, the food that did not make it to GAP destinations found its way to very grateful local NGOs who distributed the meals to needy families in the Klang Valley. Overall this year has started well. And that doesn’t even address the number of very meaningful and sustainable projects at the 29 GAP locations, some of which were really quite impressive! It’s a good time to be going to ISKL.
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