Looking to fill the generation gap

       Bas, a Grade-12 student from Bangkok, has a dream to establish a green guesthouse with a "vertical garden".Dew, from northern Thailand, plans to set up separate bins for recyclable materials at his Assumption Lampang School.
       Tiffany, a high school girl from the US,is thinking seriously about how much energy she uses in her everyday life, and Piotr, from Poland, considers, for the first time, the pros and cons of nuclear energy.
       These children come from different parts of the world, with different backgrounds and cultures. But they are now sharing the same goal - to help save energy and improve the global environment.
       Their inspiration was participating in the Toshiba Youth Conference for a Sustainable Future 2009, held between Aug 1 and Aug 7 in Kamogawa and Yokohama,Japan.
       Hosted by the Toshiba International Foundation, the conference brought together 27 high school students and 10 teachers from Thailand, the US, Poland and Japan to explore ways to achieve a sustainable society by focusing on not only energy conservation, but also sustainable energy resources.
       With its theme to halve CO2 emissions by 2050, the week-long conference encouraged the young participants to think about how they could introduce new energy practices to their own towns and communities, what would be the best mix of energy resources and what they could do individually to achieve a sustainable energy society. Discussions were also held on the shift from oil- and coal-based energy to that of natural gas and nuclear power.
       Fumihiko Namekawa, president of the Toshiba International Foundation, explained that the programme mainly involved younger people because children are the future.
       "Children are a large part of society that can make things happen or not happen.If they don't get started, nobody will. In 20 or 30 years, today's children will hold important positions in organisations and society. If we implant the right attitudes now, in the future they may come up with environmental-friendly policies or projects for their communities," he said.
       He said the idea of an environmental camp was developed because the issues are still not being addressed by the younger generation. High school students are the target because this kind of programme is still rare for them.
       This year's conference was only the second.Last year, the focus was on energy consumption, this year it was energy supply. In coming years the foundation hopes to address other environmental issues such as global warming,water safety, air pollution and food safety.
       The sustainable programme for a sustainable society
       Mr Namekawa said the conference itself is sustainable. The same schools will be chosen to participate for three consecutive years,during which time the teachers will remain the same, while students take turns each year to attend. Selected schools will be consistently engaged in environmental activities.
       "The conference is just a one week camp,but afterwards we expect the children to educate their communities," Mr Namekawa said."The first three years are like pilot projects during which we will try various methods and options. After three youth conferences,we want to establish standard ways to implement this programme for 10 or 30 years and beyond."
       Getting all the kids involved
       Designed and operated by BeGood Cafe, a Japanese non-profit organisation working on environmental issues, the conference got all participants to have their say despite their different cultures and backgrounds.
       The American and Polish kids are more confident and outspoken, while the Thai and Japanese students are quieter, and having language barriers to overcome.
       However, all of them could finally communicate thanks to the four camp rules - speak out, respect others, be active and be creative.
       Before the conference, students were given pre-camp assignments to investigate environmental problems in their own communities and share their knowledge on the designated website, act-eco.net, in order to build common understanding with other participants.
       The camp kicked off at Josai Awa Kamogawa Learning Centre in Chiba, surrounded by mountains and sea, to allow the children a chance to be close to nature. After some team-building activities to help the students overcome cultural and language barriers, participants were engaged in discussions to find common perspectives and identify goals in which they can work together.
       The crucial part of the programme is exercises for students to conduct interviews and research as journalists. The end product was a newspaper called Act Eco Journal , where students worked in groups to write articles about their findings and opinions towards each camp activity.
       After returning to their home countries,the students had post-camp assignments to share their experiences with others. They were to take some concrete action in their own communities and share their achievements with other participants via the website in order to continue to learn from each other.
       The lessons learned
       The programme offered many highlights that captured the students' attention.
       Starting with the camp routines, there was a rule restricting participants to take a bath only once a day to save water. And each student was given chopsticks which they were told to carry to use for every meal.There was one evening where they experienced dinner with light from a solar lantern.
       The visits to some ecological communities and interviews with Japanese people who chose to live a sustainable life outside the city taught the children about the true happiness of living a simple life.
       The young participants were impressed by a man, Mr Hayashi, who lives in a home made of natural and local materials, and another man called Mr Yoshida who quit his busy, urban life to live in a self-sustaining community. Both men do not own television sets and also grow their own vegetables.
       "It requires time and great effort to live a sustainable life. It's not something everyone can do, and I feel that their courage to live such an extreme lifestyle is remarkable,"said Songyi Ee, from the US High School for Environmental Studies.
       Yestrial Henriquez, from the same school,said the programme inspired her to think of adjusting her own lifestyle.
       "Something happening in the US could affect the other side of the world. The best solution is to start off small, beginning with ourselves, to make a change," she said.
       In another visit to a Mizuta residence, a traditional Japanese home built using natural sources such as wood, earth and bamboo,the students learned about the traditional wisdom that provides solutions for problems Japanese people faced.
       For example, the wooden pillars helped see the house through many earthquakes,and the roof made of grass protected the home from heat, rain and cold.
       A study tour to the Toshiba Science Museum showed the company's continuous effort to develop sustainable technology, such as erasable ink, the replacement of old incandescent bulbs with LED ones, and a new battery called a "Direct Methanol Cell"that lasts for 20 hours with less energy loss.
       Wiphada Det-Amnatkul, the Thai delegate from Triam Udom Suksa School, said she was very much impressed with the erasable ink, which allows paper to be reused.
       "Homes and offices use and throw away tonnes of paper every day. But this ink, which disappeared when it was heated, offered a better solution than just recycling the paper,"she said.
       Another group tour to Isogo Nuclear Engineering Centre, meanwhile, introduced nuclear energy as an alternative source of energy to replace fossil fuels.
       Though agreeing that nuclear is the most realistic solution for the current energy crisis,many young participants questioned the safety of collecting and disposing of nuclear waste.
       "If our technology is well developed to tackle those hazardous wastes, maybe we can make full use of nuclear energy," said Naoki Matsumoto, from Waseda University Senior High School, Japan.
       As for how to achieve a sustainable future,one group of participants wrote in their Act Eco Journal :"A mix of energy sources solar, wind, geothermal and nuclear energies,is the only way to go."Having only the solar,we would be helpless on a cloudy day or in the night. The wind turbines won't work in a windless area, and geothermal energy is restricted only to few areas. The path we should follow is mixing those energies together. They all should be used in a terrain and climate that is the best fit for each one."