Sustainable Schools: The ISF Academy

Sustainability is an integral part of the mission and future of ISF. The ISF Academy educates learners to become global stewards, who act responsibly, wisely and collaboratively as caretakers of the planet, to be inherited by our next generations.

To nurture the values, outlook and skill set for members of the ISF community to carry out this important and far-reaching mission, the ISF Eight Virtues + One were re-interpreted in 2021 through a “sustainability lens” to give the community a strong foundation and vision in our approach. Such values and virtues are now greatly applicable to our efforts towards sustainability, conservation and living with nature, and serve as an inspiration and guide in our sustainable and academic pursuits.

Our journey in sustainability started in November 2014 with a simple food waste composting system and has since grown to a school-wide initiative across many different areas. Sustainability efforts are supported throughout our K-12 curriculum, co-curricular activities, facilities management operations, energy generation and conservation, organic gardening projects, student-led sustainability research, faculty personal development training and other school-wide sustainability events. Through all this, ISF aims to empower students, faculty and staff to strive for sustainable solutions in all aspects of school and personal life.

In the 2019-2020 academic year, we commissioned a school-wide Sustainability Audit that aims to evaluate the school’s performance in sustainable practices with regards to its culture, participatory decision making, standards, food, energy, water, travel, procurement, waste, buildings, nature and biodiversity, local wellbeing, and global dimensions. During the same year, a Sustainability Council was convened amongst the key stakeholders of the school, from school leadership team, faculty members, student, parents, operations to administrative personnel, with a purpose to support, guide, and oversee the operationalization of global stewardship in the ISF community.

We have also partnered with Retykle to offer our secondhand school uniforms on their existing platform to help address the challenge of school uniform waste.

As a result of our continuous efforts in implementing environmentally sustainable measures in the school sector, the Academy was awarded “Gold” in the 2019 Hong Kong Awards for Environmental Excellence for both the Primary and Secondary categories, organized by the Environmental Campaign Committee of the HKSAR Government.

Sustainability will remain a backbone for the strategic growth of ISF in educating future leaders with timeless values and a balanced, global outlook in a constantly evolving world.