Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT) holds IFT Healthy and Green Week from 27 Feb – 2 Mar. Mr. Cheong Sio Kei, Director of Environmental Protection Bureau, Ms. Gloria Wong, Secretary-General of Tourism Development Committee, Ms. Monie Kuok, Functional Head of Tertiary Education Services Office, Dr. Fanny Vong, IFT President, Ms. Florence Ian, IFT Vice-President and Ms. Diamantina Coimbra, Director of Tourism and Hotel School officiated at the Opening Ceremony which was held at IFT on 27 Feb.
The aims of IFT Healthy and Green Week are to promote the attitude of pursuing healthy life and strengthen the eco-awareness of students and staff. With the support of students and staff, the Institute is able to head for a greener campus. It is hoped that a green message can be delivered to their families and also to the society. The Institute aims to promote healthy life style and develop green habits among institute members so as to raise people’s awareness of protecting the environment daily.
Dr. Fanny Vong said the Institute has been taken various measures to achieve the aims at saving energy and environmental protection. Some of the measures include: install heat recovery system that provides hot water to guestrooms; install solar photovoltaic modules that provide electricity so as to reduce electricity consumption and CO2 emission; use e-document to reduce paper consumption; use energy-saving lights; implement segregated recycling and launch food waste decomposer machine to treat food waste. The Institute is the first local institution of higher education to launch food waste collection programme. The organic fertiliser generated from the decomposer improves the quality of agricultural products without much pollution. The Institute is always willing to share experience with others. The programme has aroused interests of hotels and restaurants, local schools and organisations and some of them visited the Institute to learn about the difficulties and impacts of introducing food waste decomposer. With the valuable suggestions from in-house guests of Pousada de Mong-Há, the Pousada was first awarded Macao Green Hotel in 2007 and presented the silver award of Macao Green Hotel in 2010.
In terms of management, the Institute established the Occupational Safety & Health and Green Committee which composed of members from all departments of the Institute. IFT also joined an energy management programme organised by Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau and Office for the Development of Energy Sector to timely update its environmental policy and measures, and maintain their efficiency. My Green Campus Logo Design Competition was held last year and called forth the participation of students and staff for building a green campus.
During the IFT Healthy and Green Week, a series of activities are going to be held, including green walkers, organic planting, sport day, collection of second-hand items for re-use purposes, seminar on health topics. The other training unit of IFT – Educational Restaurant and Cafeteria for Students and Staff is providing healthy dishes in the week. Through the activities, it is hoped that the eco-awareness can be more concreted and IFT is going to work with the society to build Macao a livable city and maintain the sustainable development.
