HK Electric's Smart Power Campaign lifted the curtains on this year's "Happy Green Community Ambassadors" programme that aims to help youngsters develop at their early age the right attitude towards conservation, and encourage them to promote green.
The new programme will feature different learning opportunities and a chance to "job shadow" HK Electric's environmental engineers. This will be one of the three major elements in this year's campaign incorporating life planning into education on energy efficiency and a low carbon lifestyle.
Explaining all this at the campaign's launching ceremony, General Manager (Public Affairs), Ms. Mimi Yeung, said HK Electric would be providing training to secondary school students to boost their green knowledge as well as presentation skills.
"HK Electric has always been committed to environmental education and these young ambassadors will be trained to conduct guided tours at roving exhibitions. We will also identify outstanding ambassadors and offer them the opportunity to shadow our environmental engineers. For example, they will be allowed to join in collecting environmental sampling data at our Lamma Power Station. Such an experience will be useful to these aspiring environmental engineers planning for their future," Ms. Yeung said.
The "Green Energy Dreams Come True" Programme that was launched last year will continue to be one of the highlights in 2016. "Last year's programme funded 12 projects and we hope to encourage more secondary school students to submit innovative ideas to promote renewable energy, energy efficiency and sustainability and bring their green projects to life," she added.
There will be no limit to the type of projects submitted. Possible entries could include installations, models, art pieces, computer games, short movies, exhibitions or other promotional activities. All secondary school students are welcome to form teams and submit their proposals by 11 April 2016.
Members of the advisory committee of HK Electric's Education Fund will then select not more than 10 teams with the best proposals. Each team will receive seed money to a maximum of $50,000 for implementing these projects. HK Electric engineers will provide technical advice to the shortlisted teams as mentors. The best-performing groups will be awarded scholarships.
Another core element in this year's Smart Power Campaign is the "Happy Green Schools" label programme. Participating schools can enjoy a wide range of activities including visits to Lamma Power Station, Lamma Winds and Smart Power Centre; "Green Campus TV Training Classes" and social media training co-organised by the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups Jockey Club Media 21 (M21), as well as school talks and eco-tours.
To take the first step in understanding and experiencing a low carbon lifestyle, students attending the launching ceremony were taken onto a green adventure at HK Electric's Home Management Centre, Smart Power Centre and Electric Domestic Kitchen Centre. The "Outstanding Happy Green Schools" awards and "Green Channel" awards for last year were also presented to winning schools.
Continuing with the theme of "Be Green, Be Happy", the Smart Power Campaign has been promoting the smart use of electricity among the public and the younger generations since 2003. More than 520,000 members of the public have so far taken part in the campaign through various activities. The company will continue to spread green messages through its website, social media and a roving exhibition to be staged throughout the territory.