Master of Environmental Visualisation
“Reconnect Limited plays an integral role in helping me achieve my goal of bringing in positive environmental change that moves beyond conventional practices such as workshops, pledges and talks.”
IR Dr Elizabeth Lai, WEGCA 2019 Social Eco Game Changer Award Winner (Silver)
Founder, Reconnect Limited
Elizabeth is a Professional Chartered Environmental Engineer with over 14 years of experience and having worked on various sustainability projects in the developing world such as South Africa, Bangladesh and Cambodia. These experiences drove her to reflect on the fundamental problem with the way human interact with the environment. She realised the problem lies with the lack of knowledge of the problem human created and the misconception of individual’s inability to make any change. As such, Elizabeth is passionate about instilling positive value and teaching practical methods to solve real-life environmental problems. Hence she founded Reconnect, with a mission to establish as a professional Environmental Institute to empower the next generation in tackling environmental problems through education and research. As part of her work, she implemented two initiatives in the school sector in Hong Kong.
Visualising Carbon Reduction Program for Schools is a programme implemented in more than 23 primary schools since 2017. It achieved on average of more than 10% electricity consumption reduction, saving around $20,000 in electricity bill per school per year. Students are challenged to undertake a series of environmental competitions in both schools and homes. Each student has a virtual account to record and monitor their environmental performances through the completion of monthly environmental challenges and accumulate points to win the program via the program’s online system. This innovative approach induces behavioral change in the students and also produced tangible cost-saving outcomes in schools.
Visualizing Big Waster programme is another initiative designed to tackle waste management issues in schools. It is designed to prepare the school sector for the upcoming Municipal Solid Waste Charging Scheme. The project is currently operating in a total of 7 schools since January 2019, serving close to 5000 students. The program mobilises the students to reduce 5-10% of school waste by implementing an inter-classroom competition on the usage of designated waste bags based on the principle of use less save more. The schools are provided with 3 months of designated waste bags to use, and the students are required to make records on the online platform on the usage.
