Engaging the University Community
We pour a significant amount of resources into arranging a wide range of activities with the aim of cultivating a happy, pleasant working and learning environment for our staff, students and guests, and fostering stronger interactions among them. Apart from organizing engagement events and activities, we also reach out to seek internal stakeholders’ views on the University’s sustainable development initiatives.
Engagement Activities to Celebrate Our 80th Anniversary
PolyU takes great pride in the close relationships that are established within the University community, and we regularly organize internal events and activities to facilitate greater bonding between staff, students, and alumni. This year marked our 80th anniversary and several large-scale celebratory events were held to highlight the harmony of our University community as well as our unbeatable team spirit. A description of some of these events follows.
Student Multimedia Show
At the Student Multimedia Show, PolyU students and alumni performed on stage to share their innovative multimedia projects and various performing arts talents with the audience. The show presented an excellent platform for our students to unleash their talents, and provided encouragement for them to develop their potential and pursue their dreams.
[Photo]: Students showcased their talents at the Student Multimedia Show
8 x 80 Cycling
"8 x 80 Cycling" was a cycling activity which brought over 400 PolyU staff, students, alumni, their families and friends together for a homecoming festival to promote safe biking and healthy living. Led by the Event Ambassador Mr. Wong Kam-po, a former world champion cyclist, the cycling lovers biked along a 7.1-km route that started from and ended at the University campus, winding their way through Yau Tsim Mong district. The event was very well received and fully displayed our strong PolyU spirit.
[Photo]: PolyU cycling lovers biking in celebration of our 80th anniversary
Seeking Campus Sustainability Feedback
We regularly reach out to members of the University community to gather their opinions and get suggestions that can help improve our on-campus sustainability policies and strategies. Similar to the Campus Sustainability Survey conducted in 2016, during the year under review we conducted an online campus-wide survey between 26 March and 13 April, inviting current staff and students to share their views on sustainability.
Participants were asked to rate their level of satisfaction with PolyU’s environmental performance, environmental interests, levels of agreement on statements about the environment and sustainability, and the frequency with which they practiced various green actions on campus. We were happy to receive over 1,000 responses in total. Overall, the respondents were generally satisfied with the environmental performance at PolyU, demonstrating the success of our continuous efforts to raise environmental awareness.
We also designed a stakeholder engagement exercise to solicit views on an initiative to reduce the use of single-use disposable items on campus. Between 21 and 28 November 2017, a total of 4 face-to-face engagement sessions were held with students, hall residents and staff. These were followed by a campus-wide online survey exercise which took place in January 2018. We collected feedback and suggestions on how to encourage students to dine-in, how to offer more attractive bring-your-own discounts, how to impose takeaway levies, promote the shared use of lunchboxes and methods of banning disposable items. Altogether, we received 378 online survey responses. The majority of the respondents were positive about the initiatives; they believed that enhancing the bring-your-own discount would be a practical and effective means of reducing the number of disposable items used. The stakeholders also identified the lunchbox as the single-use item that needed to be urgently addressed.
[Photo]: Staff provided feedback on ways to reduce the use of disposable items at PolyU
Engagement Exercises Lead to Success
After consolidating the feedback from the online survey and the stakeholder engagement sessions, PolyU began a trial on providing an enhanced bring-your-own discount of HK$3 for takeaway meals and imposed a takeaway levy of HK$1 during non-peak hours at six student and staff canteens on the Main Campus and at University hostels.
Subsequently, an online survey was conducted in April 2018 to collect staff and student opinions on these pilot measures. Again, the majority of the respondents were supportive of the measures that were implemented. Thus, from June 2018 onwards, we formally introduced these measures to discourage the use of disposables on campus.
[Photo]: Banners were displayed at a student canteen to encourage students to bring their own lunchboxes and cups