Hong Kong Academy: Pioneering Sustainability in Education + Join The Exploration Day 2025

Sustainability is woven through the curriculum and embedded into operating practices at Hong Kong Academy (HKA), which regularly organizes eco-friendly activities such as beach clean-ups for students.

Want to learn more – be sure to register for their upcoming Exploration Day on March 1, 2025, from 9am-1:30pm in Hong Kong!  It’s free-of-charge

How Hong Kong Academy Has Evolved Over The Years – A Journey In Becoming a Leader in Sustainability:

• It’s been quite a journey to sustainability for HKA. From 2000 to 2012, the school was located in temporary buildings on Hong Kong Island. In 2009, they were given the green light to go ahead with developing their purpose-built campus in Sai Kung.
• Designing from scratch enabled the school to work with experts who guided them in the creation of a low-carbon build, which resulted in HKA being the first – and still the only – whole-school campus to be awarded Gold BEAM+ status by the Green Buildings Council of Hong Kong.
• The operational team continues to work on carbon reduction, recently installing LED light bulbs to reduce energy consumption and installing solar panels on the roof. Perhaps even more importantly, the school ensures that sustainable learning is built into the curriculum with a view to their students becoming the next generation of sustainable leaders.

How Hong Kong Academy Prioritizes Sustainability in Primary School

• In Primary School, teachers connect every Unit of Inquiry to at least one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals ensuring the children develop a broad understanding of the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, and peace and justice.

How Hong Kong Academy Prioritizes Sustainability in Secondary School

• A glance through their Secondary School curriculum planners reveals how teachers intentionally design learning units so students at every grade level learn about how humans affect the planet and how planetary systems affect humans. Examples include a Grade 6 Interdisciplinary unit that brings together learning about energy usage and sustainable energy practices and pairs this with learning about consumption patterns and circular economies.
• In Grade 8, students look at how economics and political systems are major causes of modern sustainability issues across the globe, and in Grade 9 students inquire into how human choices and actions change the climate and have consequences for systems and sustainability.
• The Secondary School schedule also includes three ‘Flex’ blocks each week where students work on self-starting projects to affect positive change. Student projects include a weekly Fix It club and a beach clean-up team while science students work on energy reduction solutions for low-cost housing projects.
• As they complete their final two years at HKA, students can opt to study ‘Environmental Systems and Societies’, an IB Diploma class that fosters an international perspective, awareness of local and global environmental concerns, and an understanding of scientific methods as well as ethical and socio-political aspects.

Give your child a sustainable education at HKA!  Find out about all their efforts in this area by clicking here.