Students Against Violation of the Earth (SAVE) is the main environmental student organization in NUS. Strongly supported by the NUS administration, NUS Students’ Union (NUSSU) and the academia, SAVE is at the forefront of promoting environmental awareness, activism, stewardship and initiating impactful environmental programmes in the university campus and beyond to combat global climate change.

Since 2006, Green Carnival has been SAVE’s annual flagship project. It is a platform to raise environmental awareness and mobilize the NUS community to translate that awareness into action for the environment. Green Carnival is strongly and widely supported by NUS administration, Students’ Union and governmental bodies such as National Environment Agency (NEA) and South West CDC.

Climate change is now an established fact. According to the Fourth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), global greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2015 to prevent a rise in global temperatures beyond 2-2.4°C. NUS, being a university of global standing, underlined her commitment to meet this global challenge with the launch of the “NUS Fights Climate Change” initiative at the Green Carnival 2008. Five sustainable environmental projects were implemented under that broad initiative. They are: Zer0waste, 1 Degree Up, Rebate2Earth, Save3s and Food4Thought.

While the projects implemented last year have set the direction for environmental sustainability in NUS, Green Carnival 2009 will see the attention returning to the individual. This year’s theme: “NUS Fights Climate Change, What About You?” encapsulates our belief that it would take the concerted effort of every member in the NUS community to achieve an impact in mitigating climate change. SAVE will be doing a series of activities including a voting campaign, exhibitions, a dialogue session between students and the administration, a symposium and a movie screening. SAVE will also be assisting OES and OED in the implementation of new initiatives to coincide with Green Carnival 09; this includes a new recycling infrastructure, replacing plastic boxes used for canteens take away with sustainable sources as well as providing a channel to recycle e-waste in NUS. Through these, SAVE aims to produce a blueprint of promoting environmental stewardship in educational institutions that can be shared and replicated in other tertiary institutions.

Visit our website.