environmental challenge organisation (singapore)

ECO Living Programme 2011 - 2012 known as ECO Singapore

Contact Person : Tan Yi Han

Executive, ECO Living Programme
Contact No. : (65) 91700320 Our Youth. Our Future.
Email : yihan.tan@eco-singapore.org Society Reg. No: ROS326/2002
Charity Reg. No: 1739

ECO Living Programme

 
ECO Living Programme @ Hong Kah North

Venue: Hong Kah North

Date: 26.02.2011
Time: 8am – 12pm

ECO Living Programme 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 Programme @ Hong Kah
North.
School Talks:

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 Programme.
*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
 environmental challenge organisation (singapore)
ECO Living Programme 2011 - 2012 known as ECO Singapore

Our Youth. Our Future.

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

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.
School Talks:

The students were reminded to follow these steps:

(1) Be polite and give the residents a cheery greeting;

(2) 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;
(3) Perform a water survey to understand their habits with regards to water
consumption;
(4) Perform a basic information survey about the residents habits in usage of water
and electricity;

*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
 environmental challenge organisation (singapore)
ECO Living Programme 2011 - 2012 known as ECO Singapore

Our Youth. Our Future.

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

(5) Thank them and let them know when the next round will be.

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 Programme to be on the 26 of
March - Earth Hour day. As befitting for that occasion, the main topic will be energy.
School Talks:

*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