SISHK Green Club – Green Learning Journey
On the 23rd of June, the Green Club visited the Hong Kong Gold Coast Hotel on a Green Learning Journey, organised by the Sino Group. It was an engaging and eye-opening experience where we saw, smelt, and even touched and tasted the many innovative measures implemented by the Sino Group in their hotels to work towards a more sustainable and net-zero carbon future.
One of the most prominent green initiatives at the Gold Coast Hotel is the beautiful and vast organic farms, and we were mesmerised by the diversity of flora and fauna – from exotic butterflies to pleasantly-scented herbs. It is part of Sino Group’s larger green community project ‘Farm Together’, and we learned that guests staying at Gold Coast Hotel can also take part in farming and harvesting activities; we also had the unique opportunity to harvest peppers and take them home! We found the project very meaningful, and it not only raises awareness of eco-friendly farming practices, but also invites members of the community to join in on the effort – it is the true embodiment of the statement ‘保护环境 人人有责’ – we should all play a role in protecting the environment! We can certainly take a page from what we learned and apply it to our organic farming project at our school’s Science Garden as well.
There were many other sustainable practices within the hotel. We were introduced to the ‘Reverse Vending Machine’, which allowed guests to deposit empty plastic bottles for recycling and receive ‘Carbon Points’ in return, which they can then use to exchange for other goods. I found this a very innovative idea, to incentivize people to recycle more. There are even hotel rooms themed around eco-friendly practices, the most memorable of which had all its furniture produced by ‘upcycling’ old objects – bedsheets, tables, lamps – everything!
Overall, it was a very memorable and enjoyable learning journey, and we were certainly inspired to implement similar ideas within our school community, to encourage SISHK students to play a part in working towards a cohesive and sustainable future too! Biggest thanks goes to Sino Group for hosting us!
