Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

Food production is a huge contributor to carbon emissions. Greenhouse gases are generated at every step before the food reaches our plates. On the CUHK campus in Sha Tin, more than 30 canteens provide daily catering services for about 30,000 students and staff. To curb food waste on campus and to educate our members on the urgency of food resource conservation and wastage prevention, we launched a campaign called ‘Love Food, Hate Waste @CUHK’. Its activities include appointing ambassadors, promoting waste-reduction in canteens, and setting up recycling facilities for caterers.

Fifty-three ‘Save Food’ Ambassadors were recruited and trained to promote the ‘Love Food’ campaign in the 2019–20 academic year.

In light of the escalating COVID-19 pandemic around the world and the fact that most of us have to stay at home for study and work to prevent transmission of the disease, the Hong Kong Sustainable Campus Consortium presented its annual Joint University Campaign ‘UNIfy: Sustainable Living #StayAtHome Edition’ online to promote healthy and sustainable living in this difficult time.

The University launched a ‘Plastic-free Campus’ campaign in 2018 to encourage CUHK students, staff and caterers to work together to go ‘plastic-free’ and build a sustainable green campus by discontinuing the use of plastic disposables.