Can you believe it’s March?! With Earth Day 2010 in close sight, students are preparing their initiatives and becoming active in the global movement. We are excited to share excerpts of an article by Sangam Malani, a student from Bangkok, Thailand, who is actively involved in creating awareness in his community.

Contributed by Green Cleaning Ideas

“A carbon footprint is a measure of the impact our activities have on the environment and, in     particular, climate change. And statistics show that the making of plastic bags is responsible for     15% of a person’s carbon footprint. Reading this I realized that a     reduction of plastic bags would     not only help preserve the integrity of our ecosystems, but would also reduce the burden on     landfills, cut back on litter and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.

For these reasons I, Sangam Malani, and the rest of the Environmental Committee at KIS     International School Bangkok, decided to sell cloth bags and reusable water bottles, as well as     recycled plastics at our fun-fair. With great enthusiasm we set up our booth! 100 Baht from     whatever we sold was given to the organization, “Bring the Elephant Home” which plants     trees to     restore the natural habitat for the elephants and thus also helps comb at global warming.     We     were selling the bags smartly, however as the day wore on, the customers began to ignore     us. I realized that many of our customers didn’t understand what we meant when we talked     about CARBON FOOTPRINT. And at the end of the day when I found out that we failed to     break-even, I noted that next time we would use simpler phrases to get our message across.

However, our effort to make a small difference by recycling plastics was successful. We placed     recycle bins around the campus and the environment group members made the recycling as     efficient as possible. Despite [setbacks]…what [we] did was that we made an effort to recycle.”

-Sangam Malani
KIS International School, Bangkok, Thailand.

Inspired?!! As Sangam has shown, anyone can make a difference, no matter how big or small. Be a part of this global movement; register your event for Earth Day 2010!

Contributed by Jessica Lin