CURATED BY NIKI DE WITT
The U.S. Green Building Council recently named Hong Kong’s Sing Yin Secondary School the winner of 2013’s “Greenest School on Earth.” In addition to the school’s inspiring green technology, which includes wind turbines and solar panels, they also provide curricular programs that promote environmental responsibility. Furthermore, the new technology is sparking curiosity among the students who are able to learn through observation.
FROM FAST COMPANY
Sing Yin Secondary School, in Hong Kong, has all the impressive technology you would associate with a “green school”: solar panels, wind turbines, green roofs, LED lighting, etc. But that’s not why the U.S. Green Building Council just named it a winner in its 2013 “Greenest School on Earth” competition.
At the school, design is a means for teaching sustainability. “What’s really impressive is what they’re doing at a curricular and co-curricular level,” says Rachel Gutter, director of the USGBC’s Center for Green Schools. For example, Sing Yin has a program to promote energy conservation in the students’ homes, and it designates about a dozen students to have specific environmental responsibilities within the school. “They’re really making the students the leaders,” Gutter adds.
Sing Yin is not a particularly rich institution. Like USGBC’s other winning school, Uaso Nyiro Primary School, in Kenya (which we covered here), it lives within its means. “What we like about both of them is that they defy the notion that green schools are for the haves, the privileged. These are low-income schools,” Gutter says….Continue Reading
Niki is currently exploring Asia while working on a children’s book series about travel. As a child, she traveled and moved often for her parents’ jobs. As a result of this, she has always felt most at home when she’s off and away. She is interested in international films, working on building an impressive tea collection, and can often be found with her camera in hand. You can have a look-see at her blog and follow her on Twitter @nikidding.