Invited Speakers & Guests
Workshop 1 - Speakers
Grace S.Y. Lim
Grace is an experienced trainer in the education and environment field, as well as an expert in marine biology and clean water. A zoologist by training, she uses the outdoor classroom, creative methodologies, and E-learning for her teaching of biology, and the development of educational curriculum and resources. Grace has developed and conducted programs, workshops, and learning trails for several Singapore governmental organizations, Singapore Science Centre, and primary and secondary schools. She has also conducted eco-literacy programs for teachers and trains nature guides. Grace also conducts consultancies for private organizations in environment education and sustainable development.
Sarah Tan
Sarah Tan is the 18 year-old leader of Bye Bye Plastic Bags Singapore, a local chapter of the global Bye Bye Plastic Bags movement. Through education, collaboration and action, BBPB SG aims to reduce the use of plastic bag consumption while instilling a sense of eco-consciousness in the community. Sarah’s main inspiration behind her environmental work comes from her high school Geography lessons, where she realised that if we are the creators of the problem, we can also be the creators of the solution. Seeing the power that youths possess, she aims to ignite environmental action through BBPB SG, where she has organised various coastal cleanups and educational sharings, amongst other things.
Sam Shu Qin
After stumbling into a team of coral scientists, Sam has since been actively involved in restoring coral reefs in Singapore’s highly urbanized marine environment and regions in Southeast Asia. Spending a lot of time underwater also gave Sam the opportunity to experience first-hand impacts of human destruction – marine debris. With the main intention to raise awareness about marine debris, Sam co-founded a non-profit initiative “Our Singapore Reefs” to connect like-minded marine enthusiasts. Sam is also an aspiring science communicator and is currently exploring creative ways to expand public knowledge in marine science. Through these efforts, Sam hopes to inspire stewardship among the youths to do their part in environmental conservation.
Tammy Gan
Tammy is a 22-year-old environmental activist who focuses her efforts on making systemic environmental action accessible through her Instagram platform (@lilearthgirl) and her articles on Green Is The New Black. Currently, she is also an undergraduate at Yale-NUS College studying Environmental Studies.
Taylor Hickem
Taylor currently works on research for climate change mitigation policy – decarbonisation solutions, economics and policy analysis. Since July last year he has been actively involved in grassroots climate action organising in Singapore such as 350 Singapore, SG Climate Rally and recently with Green Lobang. Taylor currently focuses on the following areas – Energy and economics policy, public education and community building, Sustainable urban design, greenhouse gas emissions inventory, Low carbon energy systems..
Oan Jia Xuan
Jia Xuan started her environmental advocacy journey when she joined Hwa Chong Green Council, which she later led. In her 2nd year in HCI (College), she founded Project bECOme to bring her advocacy efforts beyond the school to the public realm. Under Project bECOme, she has since embarked on multiple initiatives to promote waste reduction — from BYO experiments to the Bread Without Bags campaign to the annual Circular CNY programme. Not only does Project bECOme encourage businesses and consumers to adopt more sustainable practices, it also seeks to support other environmental groups and groom budding environmentalists.
Melissa Lam
Melissa is the founder of Bamboo Straw Girl, a local social enterprise that produces everyday necessities using bamboo as an alternative to plastic, and at the same time, provides employment opportunities to poor communities. To date, Bamboo Straw Girl has replaced almost 3 million disposable plastic straws and empowered a dozen independent South East Asian makers through full-time employment or an additional stream of income. She is also a strong green advocate supporting the movement against single-use plastics.
Pamela Low
Pamela is the founder of Tingkat Heroes Singapore, an initiative that works with communities, schools and businesses to stop providing disposables. Tingkat Heroes SG aims to educate and empower youths to act on climate change via their eco-curriculum. Pamela has organised various initiatives such as Doing Away with Disposables in NUS where she successfully changed policies to incentivise the use of reusables and cut single-use disposables at canteens and the 13 halls and residences, and a Sustainability Camp held on 13th October 2018, covering key topics of Diet, Plastics, Electronic Waste and Fashion which attracted 47 participants from the public.
Kate Yeo
Kate is the person behind @byobottlesg, a campaign aiming to reduce the usage of single-use disposables in Singapore. On an international scale, she is one of the lead coordinators of the youth-led NGO Re-Earth Initiative, and a youth member of the UN Environment Programme. Through these different platforms, Kate strives to raise awareness on climate justice issues, as well as build a stronger global network of youth environmentalists. During the Conference, she will be sharing about her environmental journey, in particular with regards to zero waste, and what you can do to contribute to the movement – be it in your own life, or in the community. (Kate would also like to add that despite being in the environmental movement for over a year now, she often actually has no idea what she’s doing – so don’t worry if you feel the same way!)
Celine Vien
A member of the first batch of Greenterest in HCI (College), Celine has made her mark on not just the people around her, but also on the community beyond. In school, she organised a clothes donation drive in support of the Lombok earthquake victims in September 2018. She also proposed a BYO Bottle campaign with Audrey Yong through the Be Beta Challenge in 2018, which is an entrepreneurship challenge, to promote a BYO school culture. Outside of school, Celine is also heavily involved in community level initiatives, from being a member of the Chili Padi Academy and the Environmental Leadership Programme, to attempting an upcycling business with a community in Lombok.
Workshop 2 - Guest Facilitators
Rachel Tey
Ever since stepping hesitantly into the environmental scene in her secondary school days, there was no turning back for Rachel’s friends, all on the verge of blocking her IG stories about sustainability. Most of Rachel’s schooling days she remembers fondly as filled with spreading the environmental message to those around her: leading Green Council as president in 2018-2019, she also expanded beyond the walls of her school in organising the Youth for Change conference in Jan 2019 bringing together youth activists all over Singapore. With that strength, she sought to lobby them together to fight collectively, pushing for island-wide change by MOE (July 2019). Armed with a similar vision, she is now busy building a community for pre-tertiary groups in Eco Youth Collective. Today, she hopes to shed light on how living a zero-waste lifestyle looks like in its multiple facets and what it takes to bring it into the norm of every person’s life.
Glenda Wee
Glenda is a fresh graduate from Hwa Chong Green Council, where she spent her time running the Thrift Shop and eventually organised the inaugural GreenCon for secondary school students. She is a firm believer that environmental education is a key step in inspiring action. Since her graduation, she has embarked on several projects. During the Circuit Breaker period, she engaged youths online through crash courses on environmental issues such as waste management & climate change. She currently works on developing a mentorship programme under the Eco Youth Collective — a hub for pre-tertiary students to exchange ideas for green projects in their schools.
Lim Yang En
Yang En recently graduated from Hwa Chong Institution (College) and is currently awaiting his National Service enlistment. As part of the HCI (College) Green Council, he had the opportunity to work with like-minded individuals to push out initiatives targeted at promoting environmental awareness amongst the student population. Some of the initiatives pushed out during their term includes having HCI (College) go largely disposable free, and organising a Fast Fashion Week. He looks forward to discussing environmental issues with everyone at the conference!