HK Electric's Smart Power Campaign 2018 is encouraging all to become green KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders), who will inspire others to a green lifestyle by sharing their low carbon initiatives.
At the launching ceremony last weekend, four KOLs were invited to share how they started their green journeys and influenced others with their beliefs and values. The four included artiste Ms. Leila Tong; founder and Chief Executive Officer of Social Ventures Hong Kong and co-founder of Green Monday, Mr. Francis Ngai; Director of Environmental Advocacy of the Green Earth, Mr. Hahn Chu; and Nature Education Director of Natural Network Mr. Mok Ho-kwong.
Being a keen advocate of clothes recycling, Leila Tong called on the public to share and pass on pre-owned clothing using social and on-line media; Francis Ngai has been eager to promote vegetarian diets as they are healthy and low carbon; Hahn Chu reminded that waste reduction had to be done at source; and Mok Ho-kwong appealed to all to appreciate nature more so we could learn to respect and preserve it.
Speaking at the launching ceremony, HK Electric's General Manager (Public Affairs) Ms. Mimi Yeung, said that the campaign encouraged everyone to influence others with their green actions. "It is easy to do, especially when the social media is so popular nowadays. Sharing a photo of the vegetarian meal you eat or checking in while hiking on the greenery around you could become ideas for encouraging friends to act greener."
The "Happy Green Community Ambassadors" will continue to be one of the highlights of this year, with new missions given to them. These ambassadors will be required to come up with their own green beliefs or messages, which they need to spread around and persuade others to follow.
Different learning experiences will be offered, including training on green knowledge and presentation skills. In return the ambassadors will have the chance to practise what they have learned by serving as tour guides to promote green messages at the roving exhibitions held later this year.
And as a life-planning experience, outstanding ambassadors will have a chance to take part in job shadowing HK Electric's environmental engineers to learn more about green electricity generation.
Also launched at the same event was a new board game, which will be distributed to all primary and secondary schools to encourage students to learn green tips in a fun way. The game is jointly developed by HK Electric and the Po Leung Kuk Life Planning and Financial Education Centre, while the green tips for the games came from students of 13 schools who had joined a low carbon workshop held last year.
The ever-popular "Green Energy Dreams Come True" competition will continue in 2018, Ms. Yeung said. "This year's competition will emphasise "STEAM" (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) development and education. This will be a good opportunity for secondary schools students to plan and implement their dreams of how to promote renewable energy, energy efficiency and energy sustainability."
There will be no limit to the type of projects submitted. All secondary school students are welcome to form teams and submit their proposals by 13 April 2018. The 12 teams with the best proposals will receive seed money of up to $50,000 to implement their projects supported by technical mentorship from HK Electric engineers. The best-performing groups will be awarded scholarships. This year, a special "Best Social Media Promotion" award has been included to encourage better and greater use of new media for promoting green.
The "Happy Green Schools" label programme will continue to feature other learning experience activities such as visits to HK Electric's facilities, school talks, eco-heritage tours and "Green Campus TV Training Classes" and will again be co-organised with the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups Jockey Club Media 21 and offered to member schools.
To revisit the green KOLs' sharing at the ceremony, or find out more about this year's Smart Power Campaign, simply visit the www.hkelectric.com/smartpower website or the campaign Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/hkelectricsmartpowercampaign.