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Project title: V’air - Sustain Hong Kong

1 Objectives and target groups

Speaking of the term ‘sustaining’, one often relates it to extending the life span of something for

future use. The project title ‘Sustain Hong Kong’ may not appeal to the public at first. However, the true

value of sustainable development actually lies in the idea that the current quality of life can be improved

without compromising the prospects of future generations. It is time for people to know that economic

prosperity does not always come at the cost of the environment. Modern concepts like low impact

development and carbon neutral economy should be more widespread in Hong Kong. The whole project

aims at triggering behavioral change of all Hong Kong residents, into leading better lives with less

pollution and waste.

V’air genuinely believes that sustainable development is a principle that enables the society to

operate in a harmonious and graceful manner without compromising the development potential of future

generations. It can strike a balance among economic gains, social order and environmental quality.

Therefore, it is vital for all Hong Kong people to understand the concept of sustainable development.

Hence, the general activities in this project target at the general public. While the highlighted activity

target solely at teenagers – secondary school students. As we believe that teenagers have developed basic

knowledge foundation on sustainability through their normal syllabus. The only thing they lack is a

practical opportunity to execute sustainable development principles. This is the rationale of our

highlighted activity, for youngsters to get a taste of sustainable development in real life.

2 Outline of activities

2.1 Secondary school outreach program – ‘Local-eyes Hong Kong’

The highlighted activity is an outreach program with secondary school students. Name of the activity

is ‘Local-eyes Hong Kong’. In the activity, our team would guide a group of secondary school students to

re-discover Hong Kong through the perspective of locals, which are the indigenous villagers living in

some part of Hong Kong. In addition, ‘local-eyes’ shares the same pronunciation as the word ‘localize’,

suggesting that students can gain access to and build connections with different parts of Hong Kong.

‘Local-eyes Hong Kong’ is divided into five stages. At the beginning, V’air will shortlist some sites

in Hong Kong that have unique potentials for developing local tourism. V’air would then lead discussion

sessions among students to choose the best site based on the carrying capacity of the candidates, whether

it can bear the environmental burden brought by tourism. After site selection, the second stage follows,

which is to communicate with the locals who live or run business at the site. This stage only involves

chatting casually with local people. It is a process of empathy in design thinking, through which students

can understand the locals’ needs and problems in their daily lives.

The third course of activity is about discussion and negotiation with local people on the impacts of

promoting tourism at the site. The three aspects of sustainability have to be thoroughly discussed,

including the social life of indigenous people, local economy and environmental quality of the site. After

the process of deliberation, students can begin to design a route with scenic spots and leisure activities for

members of public to enjoy the inherent value of the site. The process will be assisted by V’air members,

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under the framework of sustainable development. The key challenge for students is to balance the

interests of the economy, society and environment. The fifth, hence the last stage requires students to

promote the attraction to other Hong Kong people through the use of social media and street campaigns.

Students are encouraged to share their fruits of learning about sustainability with members of public,

which can convince them to visit the unique local attractions.

Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5

V’air screening of

potential tourist

attractions in Hong

Kong and allow

secondary school

students to select

one site for

tourism

development

Secondary school

students casually

chatting with

locals to

understand their

concerns

Negotiation and

discussion with

local people based

on sustainability of

the site

Designing travel

itineraries at the

site for public

Promotion of local

tourism of the

attraction to

general public

Fig. 1 Five stages of ‘Local-eyes Hong Kong’ activity

2.2 Local tours in Hong Kong

Alongside with the featured activity, V’air is also going to actively seek collaboration with NGOs

such as Ecobus, Trailwatch, HKTraveler, CrossBorder Environment Concern Association (CECA) to

co-organize local tours for members of public to join. Apart from this, V’air is planning to organize Hong

Kong local tours with community centres, targeting at teenagers and children. Potential collaboration

partner includes Evangelical Lutheran Church Social Service Tuen Mun Integrated Teenager Centre.

These tours not only educate the public on the valuable tourism resources in Hong Kong, provoking them

to cherish the natural environment. It also encourages them to travel locally instead of overseas, which

can effectively reduce the carbon footprint of Hong Kong. Low-carbon lifestyle paves way for a

sustainable future. On our existing webpage and Facebook page, there is open recruitment of itineraries in

Hong Kong. These ideas can be used to enhance the local tours we organize.

2.3 Workshop-based educational events

On the other hand, V’air holds individual workshops in events that promote environmental

conservation. For example, we will organize a workshop at the Eco-Garden Party organized by the Lung

Fu Shan Environmental Education Centre (LFSEEC) in the coming October. These events usually target at

the public, in which different green organizations can convey the message of environmental protection. In

these occasions, V’air incorporates the importance of sustainable development rather than only focusing on

the environmental aspect. This can reach out to different sectors in the society, emphasizing balance and

harmony. In the future, we will continue to actively take part in different green events, expanding the

network of conservation in Hong Kong.

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3 Implementation schedule

Fig. 2 Implementation schedule of the project

As shown in figure 1, our Facebook Page and webpage will be updated regularly from now on.

Local tours organized in partnership with other NGOs also start from present. The schedule is not fixed,

whenever collaboration is successful, the tours will be organized. We expect to cooperate with other

organizations for at least three local tours before December 2016. The highlighted activity for secondary

school students, ‘Local-eyes Hong Kong’ will begin in early August 2016. The activity is divided into

five stages. The first stage which only involves mentorship and discussion among students is expected to

end in late August 2016. The second to fifth stages include negotiation with local residents as well as

promotion to the general public. These four stages will be carried out during the period of September to

November 2016. While for educational workshops at green events, they will be organized in September

and October 2016, as we have received invitations during this period of time.

4 Meeting Objectives

Looking back at the objectives of the SDPA scheme, the main idea is to promote the concept of

sustainable development to students of higher education institutes as well as applying the practices in

their daily lives. It is also essential to spread the concept to the peers and community. Through organizing

‘Local-eyes Hong Kong’, we would like to encourage students from secondary schools to get in touch

with indigenous villagers and promote local tourism. Local tours and educational events also aim at

raising awareness on sustainability in the community as a whole. We are confident that the activities

mentioned above can be organized smoothly provided funding from the SDPA award. Similar to our

group’s goal, V’air would like to see people have fun and enjoy their lives in Hong Kong while reducing

environmental burden of our planet. The project title ‘Sustain Hong Kong’ may sound broad and

unattainable, but we have begun to take concrete actions leading to this final destination.

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5 Appendix

5.1 Renewed webpage of V’air Hong Kong (www.vairhk.com)

Once visitors click into our webpage, the homepage showcases nine photos of highlighted attractions

of the month. They can click onto the photos that intrigue them, thus be redirected to information pages

introducing the relevant attractions. The information page not only provides basic tourist information like

transportation methods, but also the development history, ecological background of the attractions. These

functions will arouse the ecological awareness of Hong Kong people, as well as understanding the

sustainable development principle. On our educational page, information on carbon emission of air

travelling will be displayed, highlighting the benefits of local tourism. The process of attraction selection

will also be featured on the page, demonstrating to the audience how the three aspects of sustainability –

economy, society and environment, were considered during the process.

Fig. 3 Homepage of the site

Fig. 4 Tourist information and ecological knowledge on an attraction (Long Yuen Wetland)

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Fig. 5 Tourist information and ecological knowledge on an attraction (continued)

5.2 Media and Exposure

The initial prototype of V’air captured the First Class Award in Hong Kong Tertiary School COP21

Challenge, organized by the Consulate General of France in Hong Kong and Macau and Hong Kong

Sustainable Campus Consortium. As soon as our prototype was created, V’air has already received media

attention, including Mingpao, Apple Daily and Metropop, stating their interests and expectations towards

our project.

On March 20, 2016, V’air was introduced on Sunday Mingpao, in the article named “綠色生活﹕低

碳旅遊網站 唔使飛遊香港 睇世界級風景”. The script has explained the mode of operation of V’air as

well as the goals of co-founders.

Fig. 7 Published Sunday Mingpao “綠色生活﹕低碳旅遊網站 唔使飛遊香港 睇世界級風景”

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On April 30, 2016, V’air was invited to attend the Greengoer Graduation and Exhibition Day

organized by Ecobus. The occasion allowed our organization to meet other active green groups in Hong

Kong, such as Trailwatch and HKTraveler, exploring the possibility of collaboration.

Fig. 8 V’air Hong Kong’s booth at Greengoer Graduation and Exhibition Day