Getting to Know the Green Team - Natalie CHANG
Natalie CHANG, Staff from Office of Planning and Institutional Research
1. What drives you to support sustainability?
Bible says God has clearly placed humans in a position of responsibility over the creation. We are accountable to Him as stewards of the Earth, therefore we should manage our environment properly. As a Christian, I am sorry to see that the ecosystem is being damaged; we should proactively take actions to protect our environment and live a sustainable lifestyle. I developed a strong sense to care for the environment when I was small.
2. What keeps your passion despite facing difficulties and not being comprehended by others?
Caring for the environment may bring inconvenience; however, I think this is something that we should do. We should take actions to protect the environment now before it is too late. What I am doing may be small action, but if everybody can change their lifestyle, changes will happen. At the same time, I have to respect others who do not think the same way. For example, my husband often needs to turn on the air-conditioner in summer, I still have to respect him although I would rather turn it off.
3. How do you practice sustainability on campus?
I often take stairs when I go back to the office on the 6th floor. Not only saving electricity, surprisingly my knee pain also disappeared after taking stairs for a month or so. I sometimes switch off the lights and air-conditioner in classrooms which are not in use. I also minimize the needs to print documents, and print draft quality to save toner. When I buy take-away from canteens, I always bring my own container and never use disposable ones. Recently I have joined the Green Team and help our Sustainability Unit on the green projects.
4. What do you think about the sustainability work in HKUST? What are your expectations and difficulties that you have encountered?
I think there is still a long way to go before we can say that HKUST is a truly sustainable campus. I hope staff and students can join hands to protect the environment. I think we can have more reminders to remind people living sustainably, provide more incentive to encourage staff/students to change their behavior and improve the infrastructure/facilities to save resources. Understand that green facilities may cost more, and people often have resistance if they have to bear inconvenience from those measures. I hope more UST members can support Sustainability Unit’s work as they promote the environmental-friendly initiatives.
If you want to be part of the HKUST Green Team and contribute to build a sustainable campus, sign up and join us now!
http://green.aegir-dev2.ust.hk/involved/campus-programs/greenteam
