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CUHK Jockey Club Initiative Gaia (Gaia) held a Go Green Community Sharing Workshop and GAIA Award Presentation Ceremony last Friday (27 May). Prof. Tung Fung, Associate Vice-President of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Ms Vivian Lee, Senior Charities Manager of The Hong Kong Jockey Club, Prof. Gabriel Lau, AXA Professor of Geography and Resource Management and Director of the Institute of Environment, Energy and Sustainability (IEES), CUHK, and Prof. Jimmy Yu, Associate Director of IEES, gave certificates of participation to the ‘Go Green Ambassadors’ and ‘Go Green Citizens’, i.e. schools and NGOs who are members of the Go Green Community – Jockey Club Carbon Reduction Partnership Scheme (the Scheme), and presented awards to outstanding members of the GAIA – Green Aspirations & Innovative Actions Online Platform (the GAIA Online Platform). 

Launched in 2012, the Scheme is a partnership project engaging schools and NGOs to reduce carbon emissions through a variety of activities that fit the schools’ curricula and the NGOs’ environmental policies. The GAIA Online Platform (cut-carbon.gaia.cuhk.edu.hk) is one such initiative. Since its launch in 2015, about 130 schools and organisations and over 1,400 individuals have signed up on the platform, sharing green tips and green information and pledging to take actions on the GAIA carbon-reduction checklists, to help build a sustainable future for Hong Kong. 

At the sharing workshop, Mr Edwin Lau, Executive Director of The Green Earth, Ms Chun-ying Lee, teacher at Chiu Yang Por Yen Primary School, and Mr Ching-kit Chan, teacher at Choi Hung Estate Catholic Secondary School, shared their experience in leading a low-carbon lifestyle, and discussed their ideas for promoting low-carbon schools and communities. Dr Matthew Pang, Programme Consultant of Gaia, introduced the newly-launched virtual tour of the Jockey Club Museum of Climate Change (www.gaia.cuhk.edu.hk/index.php/en/mocc/virtual-tour). Through the panoramic virtual tour, the public can access the information in the museum beyond the boundaries of time and space. Virtual visitors will see the impact of climate change on individuals and the Earth, and better understand the urgency of environmental conservation.  

CUHK Jockey Club Initiative Gaia
CUHK Jockey Club Initiative Gaia is a five-year community engagement programme, launched in 2012 by CUHK, with a generous donation of HK$70 million from The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust. In support of Gaia’s commitment to paving the way to a sustainable future for Hong Kong, the programme’s aim is to promote environmental conservation and sustainability in local communities through public education and carbon reduction partnerships with schools and non-governmental organisations. 

The first of its kind in the world, the Jockey Club Museum of Climate Change (MoCC), maintained by Gaia, is open to the public with free admission. The MoCC showcases the ‘Three Poles’ (the North Pole, the South Pole and Mount Everest) collection of renowned Hong Kong explorer Dr Rebecca Lee, innovative research on the environment, energy and sustainability initiated by CUHK, and the Jockey Club’s initiatives to promote green living in the community. 

More details of CUHK Jockey Club Initiative Gaia can be found at www.cuhk.edu.hk/gaia.