GOOD teamwork was the key to success for SMK Convent Butterworth when the school was named the Penang Green School Award 2022 winner for secondary schools during the prize presentation at Komtar yesterday.
This was the first time Convent Butterworth clinched the overall champion award.
The competition was inaugurated 13 years ago by the Penang Green Council, in collaboration with the Penang Island City Council and Seberang Perai City Council, to inculcate in students a love for the environment.
As the award winner, the school was rewarded with prize money of RM5,000 and a certificate.
Its headmistress Lim Lean Yolk attributed the victory to the hard work of all the students, workers, staff members, and parents.
“Of course, we are very excited and happy with the award. I want to thank all of them for supporting and encouraging each other during the project. It’s not a person’s job. It’s a team effort. Individually, we cannot reach this stage.
“In fact, when you talk about going green, not everybody is willing to go out and practise it.
“For example, when you tell people to bring their containers, many of them prefer to use single-use plastic containers which they can easily throw away. No need for them to wash after use,” Lim told Buletin Mutiara during an interview after the prize presentation ceremony.
In Convent Butterworth, she said the students were encouraged to bring their containers and were also taught to segregate items for recycling. The school has special bins for tetra packs, cans and recyclable plastics.
She said when she became the headmistress of Convent Butterworth in 2018, she gave her strong support to the teacher in charge of the green school programme to continue with the initiative.
In addition to growing Brazilian spinach, bitter guard, winter melon, cabbage and mushroom, the school has recently introduced a herbal garden.
As it does not have much land, the school has embarked on vertical planting. It uses mineral bottles and cooking oil containers which were filled up with soil.
Lim said last year, they started a new project – cactus succulents – which were sold at Juru Auto City, Bagan Ajam Market, and MBSP.
Lim said the school would reinvest the prize money, like buying whatever materials necessary to carry out new projects.
“We usually spend the money we won from competitions or collected from the sales of our recyclable items to buy soil and certain plants.
“For me, I always believe that to go green is not just saying it or telling it to everybody. We have to put it into action.
“I always tell my students that whatever knowledge gained from school, they can start to practise it at home and also in the community,” said Lim, who also thanked SMK Convent Pulau Tikus for sharing its experience with them.
Convent Butterworth was also proud that three of its students – Kirtanah Poomaran, Tang Jia Jia and Siti Alyssa Saadi Azlee – advocated for environmental sustainability when they took part as presenters in the online International Best Practices Sharing Session 3.0-Eco Schools last year.
During the webinar, all three shared about health and well-being, school grounds, and biodiversity and nature.
Nine schools from Malaysia took part while the foreign participating schools were from India (two), Singapore (one) and Qatar (one).
Siti Alyssa, Jia Jia and Kirtanah said what they learnt from volunteers and the Consumer Association of Penang (CAP) officers, they, in turn, taught the younger students.
“This is our last year; we are all in Form Five and we hope our juniors and our green squad will do a good job, and get more prizes,” Kirtanah said.
Story by K.H. Ong
Pix by Law Suun Ting