In September 2021, the Eco-Committee sent an eco-survey to all members of the community to find out more about the community’s attitudes and behaviours towards Prem’s sustainability practices. The survey included questions based on the 12 areas of Eco-Schools (see graphic below) across a range of areas such as curriculum, the campus, Exploria, and day-to-day school experiences. 

When the Eco-Committee analysed the results of the survey, it was clear that the community was not always aware of the full extent of Prem’s sustainability practices. This led to the creation of an action plan to work towards addressing this. Our 2021/22 actions included the following:

1. Set up a student-driven Eco-Committee involving inter-generational members of the community with clearly-defined roles. 
2. Increase Prem’s sustainability communication across the community in a range of ways. 
3. Carry out and analyse an eco-survey and sustainability curriculum review. 
4. Increase waste management practices. 
5. Create a Prem Eco-Code. 

One of our bigger projects involved waste management. The survey told us that the community was unsure about how we use our waste, but thanks to the Eco-Committee’s communication pieces, the community is now more aware (per the data from our more recent survey, see below). Last year, we added compost bins to every Junior School classroom so that the waste from afternoon fruit can be reused on campus. In the cafeteria, we added new posters to food compost bins to help with sorting the food wastage carefully and a video was created by Gavin, G12, to share what happens to the waste once it is taken to the farm. Additionally, the Eco-Committee collaborated with Banana Bike Cafe to reduce the use of plastic on campus and introduced better signage to highlight environmentally-friendly resources. 

In September of this academic year, the Eco-Committee sent out the same survey to find out whether the Eco-Committee’s communication plan actually worked: does the community now have greater awareness of Prem’s sustainability practices? What did the new data tell us? 

The Eco-Committee’s very own Data Analysis Lead, Sylhet in G8, found some interesting results that connect to waste management: 

You can see that we have made great improvements in this area of waste management! 

For this academic year, the eco-survey tells us that we still have work to do in areas of Energy Waste, School Grounds and Water. As such our targets include the following:

• Implement paper recycling baskets in every classroom and workspace. 
• Reduce the energy consumption across campus by 10%
• Reduce water consumption by 10% 
• Launch an Eco-Committee website to share more of Prem’s sustainability practices. 
• Continue to increase sustainability communication across the community in a range of creative ways and in English, Chinese and Thai languages. 

I hope you will all stay tuned to learn more about what we are doing here at Prem to improve sustainability practices across our community!

Aj. Charlotte

G3/4 Teacher