ECo Living @ South West

environmental challenge organisation (singapore)

known as ECO Singapore

Contact Person Contact No. Email

: : :

Philipp Steinkemper, Yihan Tan Executive, ECO Living Programme Our Youth. Our Future. (65) 82656955, (65) 91700320 philipp.steinkemper@eco-singapore.org Society Reg. No: ROS326/2002
Charity Reg. No: 1739

ECo Living @ South West Feb 2011 Venue: Hong Kah North Date: 26.02.2011 Time: 8am 12pm ECo Living @ South West is a year-long community grassroots programme that aims to relief the burden of low/ middle-income families while doing our bit for the Earth. Energy, water and waste audits in HDB households are performed by volunteers in order to identify areas for improvement. Following the theme of Energy for the previous audit, the theme this time was Water. A healthy turnout of 120 students from ITE College West volunteered to go door-to-door to conduct the audits. The day before the audit, a briefing was conducted at the ITE College West campus for the new student volunteers. Most of the students had already taken part in the previous audits. This is helpful in building up a relationship between students and residents. All in all 425 households are taking part in the ECo Living @ South West.

*SCAPE, 2 Orchard Link, #04-01 GRID New Media Studios, Singapore 237978 http://www.eco-singapore.org I Tel: (65) 6333 5543 I Fax: (65) 6333 5537
Registered Address: 10 Anson Road, International Plaza, #15-14 Singapore 079903

ECo Living @ South West

environmental challenge organisation (singapore)

known as ECO Singapore

Our Youth. Our Future.

Society Reg. No: ROS326/2002 Charity Reg. No: 1739

What had happened? The ITE students arrived at 8:45am at the Community Council of Hong Kah North. We conducted a short briefing to remind the students volunteers on the main points and intention of the ECo Living @ South West. Then, the ECO volunteers distributed the survey forms, water thimbles and flyers to the students. We used reusable bags so that every group of students could place all their material into one bag. Every group of students had the same equipment and went to the same number of households.

Once ready, the ITE Students fanned out to visit the various households. The ECO Singapore Volunteers joined a group each to provide help and support.

*SCAPE, 2 Orchard Link, #04-01 GRID New Media Studios, Singapore 237978 http://www.eco-singapore.org I Tel: (65) 6333 5543 I Fax: (65) 6333 5537
Registered Address: 10 Anson Road, International Plaza, #15-14 Singapore 079903

ECo Living @ South West

environmental challenge organisation (singapore)

known as ECO Singapore

Our Youth. Our Future.

Society Reg. No: ROS326/2002 Charity Reg. No: 1739

The students were reminded to follow these steps: (1) (2) Be polite and give the residents a cheery greeting; Record the consumption of electricity and water as reflected in the utility bills as well as general info such as the number of residents in the household; Perform a water survey to understand their habits with regards to water consumption; Perform a basic information survey about the residents habits in usage of water and electricity; Thank them and let them know when the next round will be.

(3) (4) (5)

Also flyers were given out and interested households got water thimbles which can be installed in water taps to reduce their use of water. The thimbles were kindly supplied by PUB. Households which preferred to get help in installation could get assistance from PUB officers in the future.

Feedback and coming audits During the audit we recognized that some of the residents are already prepared for the visit of the students. Also some residents have been proud on their results since the last audit. This is a good experience for the students. They are more confident about their work and can see that changes are already happening. They help the environment and the residents in the form of lower utility bills. We are planning for the next audit of ECo Living @ South West to be on the 26 of March - Earth Hour day. As befitting for that occasion, the main topic will be energy. Details of Energy Audit 2 Three representatives from ECO Singapore arrived at 8 am to prepare the necessary logistics at the RC Hong Kah North zone 6. The first ITE students arrived at 8:45am. Totally 120 students turned up for the second water audit of ECo Living @ South West.
*SCAPE, 2 Orchard Link, #04-01 GRID New Media Studios, Singapore 237978 http://www.eco-singapore.org I Tel: (65) 6333 5543 I Fax: (65) 6333 5537
Registered Address: 10 Anson Road, International Plaza, #15-14 Singapore 079903

ECo Living @ South West

environmental challenge organisation (singapore)

known as ECO Singapore

Our Youth. Our Future.

Society Reg. No: ROS326/2002 Charity Reg. No: 1739

The volunteers would give out, water saving kits including thimbles and stickers. At 9 am, a final briefing was conducted to run through with the volunteers the procedure to follow when visiting the residents. Once the volunteers were clear on their tasks they were told to divide into 14 groups, with a variety of language skills in each group. We had pre-allocated the households to 14 groups of volunteers, with each group assigned 11 to 12 households.

*SCAPE, 2 Orchard Link, #04-01 GRID New Media Studios, Singapore 237978 http://www.eco-singapore.org I Tel: (65) 6333 5543 I Fax: (65) 6333 5537
Registered Address: 10 Anson Road, International Plaza, #15-14 Singapore 079903

ECo Living @ South West

environmental challenge organisation (singapore)

known as ECO Singapore

Our Youth. Our Future.

Society Reg. No: ROS326/2002 Charity Reg. No: 1739

At 9.30pm, the volunteers collected their logistics. Each group would get a reusable bag containing the resident info sheets, water audit survey, water saving kits, a lanyard, a clipboard, reminder medals, stickers, a help sheet on how to conduct the audit.

By 11.45am, all the volunteers had completed their allocated units and returned to the RC. After all the logistics were collected, a mass debrief was conducted. At 12.30pm, the programme officially ended.

*SCAPE, 2 Orchard Link, #04-01 GRID New Media Studios, Singapore 237978 http://www.eco-singapore.org I Tel: (65) 6333 5543 I Fax: (65) 6333 5537
Registered Address: 10 Anson Road, International Plaza, #15-14 Singapore 079903

ECo Living @ South West

environmental challenge organisation (singapore)

known as ECO Singapore

Our Youth. Our Future.

Society Reg. No: ROS326/2002 Charity Reg. No: 1739

Partnering Organisations: ECo Living @ South West would not be possible without the continuous support from our partner organisations through the opportunity and resources they provided. The partner organisations for this event are:

ITE College West

RC Hong Kah North Zone 6

National University of Singapore

Philips

South West CDC

*SCAPE, 2 Orchard Link, #04-01 GRID New Media Studios, Singapore 237978 http://www.eco-singapore.org I Tel: (65) 6333 5543 I Fax: (65) 6333 5537
Registered Address: 10 Anson Road, International Plaza, #15-14 Singapore 079903