Turning Numbers Into Action
When I think about what first made climate change real to me, it wasn’t a documentary or a news article. Instead, it was sitting in a classroom with fellow members of our school’s environmental club, staring at a spreadsheet, calculating greenhouse gas emissions from school lunches as part of our student-led carbon audit. We weren’t climate experts or policymakers. We were students counting kilograms of rice and chicken and trying our best to translate them into kilograms of CO₂.
It felt small and almost ridiculous at first, but then I understood something important: climate change is not just about distant ice caps or abstract numbers. It lives in our cafeterias, classrooms, and the daily choices of our community. That audit became a doorway into seeing climate action as local, human, and possible.
The idea solidified one afternoon when I watched trays of uneaten food being dumped into cafeteria bins. I started wondering how much invisible waste we created every day. That image stayed with me and made me realize that before changing anything, we had to measure the weight of our choices. That thought became the foundation for our audit.
The audit was a journey of learning, collaboration, and persistence. After reaching out to WWF Singapore and securing training workshops, our team learned how to measure emissions at the school level. Moreover, we designed waste audits, conducted surveys on commuting habits and food choices, and gathered data on electricity, water, and school trips with support from school leadership. The process was rarely smooth: data was scattered, and access required persistence and trust with hesitant adults. Yet it proved that students, given a clear and relevant responsibility, can handle complexity.
Not only that, each step in our audit doubled as education in action. I saw how our efforts were noticed and sparked hallway conversations about transportation choices and food waste among students at our school. Our audits exposed hidden costs of consumption, and because peers saw us sorting through bins and collecting data, the process became collective. Consequently, sustainability stopped being abstract and became visible, tied to the systems shaping our lives.
But numbers alone could not inspire change. That is where storytelling came in. We framed each emission category as a narrative: untouched chicken wings tossed into bins, long-haul flights inflating transport emissions, or the quiet success of composting. In workshops, we paired these with games, quizzes, and live polls, inviting peers to guess, debate, and challenge assumptions. Numbers gave credibility, but stories created connection, and connection inspires action.
Our initial results were modest but meaningful. The school reduced single-use plastics and began experimenting with composting. These steps alone will not solve the climate crisis, but they represent something bigger: a cultural shift toward responsibility. For students, the audit became more than an environmental project; it was capacity building. Furthermore, we learned to analyze data, engage stakeholders, and communicate effectively. These are leadership skills we will carry into future workplaces, families, and communities.
The most powerful outcome was seeing how students could shift the mindset of an institution. By presenting findings as opportunities rather than accusations, we invited students and teachers to see themselves not as passive consumers but as agents of change. That shift planted the seed of community resilience. When people see their role in the climate story, they are more willing to act collectively.
To reach beyond my school, I am integrating a carbon-calculation feature into my self-developed app, “The EExplorers”, an environmental education platform that won third prize nationally at the ASEAN Data Science Explorers 2024 competition. Originally designed as course modules to strengthen Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) across ASEAN, the app also lets users calculate their carbon footprint and uncover the stories behind the data, helping them see how daily choices affect the environment.
Looking ahead, I view the carbon audit as the beginning. Together with my team, I am developing a peer-support network in Vietnam called Vietnam SchoolFootprint, which reached the final round of UNDP Vietnam’s Climate Box competition. This network aims to enable students from different schools to coach one another on audits, share resources, and exchange lessons. Schools committed to sustainability can provide data and support, while students lead on-the-ground action. Over time, I hope this grows into an international platform where communities collaborate on strategies to reduce emissions and spark meaningful change.
Education teaches us the “what,” storytelling makes us feel the “why,” and together they prepare us to act. That is the lesson of our student-led audit, and one I hope to amplify as we build interconnected youth-led climate initiatives. Ultimately, my generation cannot wait for solutions to arrive from above. We are building them ourselves, one school, one story, one community at a time.
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