In China, the Next Generation Takes on Climate Change

Students and their Families Gather to Celebrate a Greener Community

On November 13, 2009, ISC hosted an evening festival and educational workshop on community-based energy efficiency at Nanmen Primary School in the village of Doumen, Zhuhai, in China's Guangdong province. More than 400 primary school students attended the event along with their families, teachers and fellow community members. The workshop featured dancing, games, videos, and displays of student projects—all aimed at helping community members understand the impact of their individual energy choices.

The workshop is part of a series of activities—including community surveys, school projects, eco-clubs, and a variety of workshops—aimed at educating the local community about residential energy use. These activities focus on children because they are able to grasp the climate issue quickly and bring home a passion for making a difference to their families and neighbors. By providing these students with the tools they need to advocate for a more energy efficient lifestyle, ISC hopes to reduce residential energy use in the community by at least 20%.

A highlight of the evening was the opportunity to “visualize the future.” Students were asked how they wanted to be living in ten years, and their visions were recorded on a large display board. Parents, too, shared their hopes for their children's future. Using these collective ideals as inspiration, volunteers will tailor future activities to best show young people how to achieve the future they want through environmental protection.

Students and their parents also explored how to save energy and lead a more environmentally friendly lifestyle through games designed to make the energy efficiency message more accessible, such as “Environmental Life Adventure,” “Back to the Habitat,” “Greenhouse Gas Identification,” and “Organizing the Biological Chain.” Winners received such prizes as LED desk lamps, chopstick cases, and reusable bags.

Most exciting for some students was the chance to display the calendar projects they had been working on at school. Each day the students record something on the calendar about their home energy use—which lights are on or what kind of appliances are used, for example—and, utilizing their training in how to read electric meters, use a simple equation to convert that usage into greenhouse gas emissions. They then color their calendars to show how they are reducing their family's impact on the environment. Once they achieve a range of reductions, they earn a “Green Guardian” badge. “I'm so proud of my daughter and her calendar,” said 5th grader Zhao Jingjing's father, who works in a local factory. “What you are doing really means a lot to us.”

Doumen is one of the three communities in Guangdong—the most industrial province in China—where ISC is helping community members reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect the environment. As part of the project, ISC and its partners—South China Normal University, Vermont-based Shelburne Farms, and LEAF, an environmental education organization based in Japan—are developing an Education for Sustainability curriculum that can be rolled out to other schools in China.

In the coming months, ISC, its partners, and the community will collaborate to produce the energy calendars on a wider scale, as well as a poster, created by students, that provides a number of energy saving tips. More than 2,000 families and students in the three communities will undertake similar activities over the next two years.