Mr. Ling-Hsiang Tsai, the Chief of Energy Saving Division at the Office of Environmental Safety and Health, Asia University (AU), wrote an article to reflect the theme for celebrations of this year’s World Environment Day --“Think, Eat, and Save,” and this article was published on the website of United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) on May 28.
June 5 is the World Environment Day on which many events are held to raise the awareness of food security and environmental protection over the world. AU is no exception and has implemented a lot of activities in order to promote the World Environment Day. “We display seven posters about WED2013 at the hallway on the campus and teach the WED concept in the classes,” mentioned in Tsai’s article.
After the consecutive bursts of scandals of improper usages of plastic agent, toxic starch, and maleic acid in food products, food security has become a hot issue across the island. People start to think before they eat. They choose to eat healthier rather than eating happier. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics also teaches people how to eat right for a healthy weight. In addition, it suggests people to take appropriate quantities of food to prevent food waste and obesity.
“People can try to reduce meat consumption and eat one vegan meal a day,” said Mr. Tsai. He also encouraged students to bring their own cups for drinking to save the earth. According to the report from the Environmental Protection Administration, the population in Taiwan consumes 4.6 billion bottled beverages a year. “We should save a cup to save the planet,” stressed Tsai.
Dr. Jie-Yang Jhu, the Dean of the Office of Environmental Safety and Health, revealed that two years ago, AU signed the Talloires Declaration, officially committing the university to environmental sustainability. Recently, AU endeavored to promote vegetarian diet to reduce carbon footprint on the earth. This year, AU is ranked the 29th among 215 universities from 49 countries in the Green Metric World University Ranking. From now on, AU wishes everyone to take some actions to save our living Earth!
