Young Achiever: Edwin Zen

Edwin Zen thinks green every day. Under the 16 year old's lead, the Shanghai American School (SAS) has taken steps toward becoming a more environmentally friendly institution. Extremely well-informed and with a true passion for environmental issues, Edwin led the project ‘The Greening of SAS’ in 2010 and is currently the president of the school’s Roots & Shoots Club.

Edwin and his fellow club members work daily to keep their projects going and also to educate others about them. “We take food from the cafeteria and compost it. We also have two organic gardens on campus where we grow herbs, spinach and spices. The organic gardening also extends into our home room where we have special chemical-absorbing plants like Devil’s Ivy and Snake plants.”

Edwin explained how green initiatives can stretch into more technological areas, where double-sided printing and relying more on electronic documents serve to save paper and energy. SAS also has a recycler who comes to school once a week picking up paper, plastic bottles, aluminium cans, batteries and computer parts. “The difference from most recyclers is that he pays us RMB 700 each time, which makes us feel safe knowing that it goes to the right place and won’t just end up in a landfill.”

But the biggest project Edwin is currently engaged in is Roots & Shoots’ Million Tree Project, an initiative to plant one million trees to stop the desertification of Inner Mongolia and help offset China’s greenhouse emissions. “Our teachers, parents and sponsors purchase trees to offset the carbon footprint of our travels. Every time we make school trips or family travels we can calculate how many trees we need to buy. For example, for a trip to Hong Kong you need to buy two trees. One tree costs RMB 25.” This spring Edwin will to go to Inner Mongolia himself to plant trees.

Despite his busy schedule saving the world, Edwin still manages to keep things in balance. “It does create a time constraint, but we are 50 to 70 people working within the high school, so everyone helps.” For the future, Edwin will keep trying to be as green as possible, saying that if he doesn’t become a doctor, he will look for a more environmentally-oriented career.