21
July
2015
|
16:02
Asia/Singapore

SAVE clinches youth accolade

Wei Seng (centre) and Goh Hongyi (right), Advisor and Vice President, 17th SAVE Management Committee, accepting the award from Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean

NUS Students Against Violation of the Earth (SAVE) was conferred the Singapore Youth Award (SYA) 2015 for its persevering commitment to environmental sustainability. NUS SAVE is the first environmental group to win the nation's highest accolade for youths.

The SYA honours exceptional young individuals and youth organisations who bring distinction to the nation through visionary initiatives that improve lives.

Formed in 1992, SAVE leverages youth advocacy to propose and implement changes that make environmentally friendly choices a way of life for the NUS community. "Youths can be part of the solution…as volunteers, or simply by making environmentally friendly choices in daily life and reminding one's friends to do so too, said Woon Wei Seng, who graduated from NUS with a degree in Geography this year and served as Mentor to the 22nd SAVE Management Committee.

Through the NUS Fight Climate Change campaign, SAVE garnered signatures from 10,731 staff and students, seeking their votes on environmental initiatives. With this ringing endorsement, SAVE worked with the University administration to roll out a series of impactful projects, such as switching printers to print double-sided by default to reduce paper usage; and introducing a 10-cent plastic bag tax in canteens to cut down on the utilisation of plastic bags. The initiatives have done much to inculcate environmental awareness and help the environment. In particular, the plastic bag tax reduced the use of plastic bags by over 70 per cent, and was acknowledged in the International Alliance of Research Universities Green Guide as a best practice for universities.

Recent projects include Talk Gong, where the use of reusable food and beverage containers was advocated for a greener lifestyle; and the 2015 edition of Green Wardrobes, where SAVE collected unwanted clothing donated by students for recycling. The latter saw over 1,200 kg of clothes collected by the end of the semester.

President of SAVE Aisha Redzuwan, who graduated from NUS with a degree in Geography this year as well, attributed the win to the support of the NUS community saying, "The SYA is a recognition of our environmental efforts.