Making sustainability a way of life also starts with nurturing greater awareness on how we can each contribute towards a greener future – starting from the generation of tomorrow.
As we celebrate SG60 and look back on our sustainability efforts, we also want to engage our little ones on Singapore’s sustainability journey and encourage them to adopt sustainable habits early and go green.
Thus, the Go Green SG Champions storybook was born!
Let’s find out what inspired Yina Chua (author) and Alan Bay (illustrator) to create the Go Green SG Champions storybook!
My key inspiration for this book was my kids. My husband and I both work in the sustainability space and the topic of sustainability and climate change always come up in our household and my kids would say “Again??”.
So, when I got the opportunity to write a children’s book about sustainability, I thought that this is my chance to create something that I can better engage them with. Through this Go Green SG Champions story, I hope they can better understand and be interested in caring for our environment and how to make it better.
The future belongs to all our children. And in my parenting journey, I realised that kids can achieve amazing things when you let them run free. Once they are given autonomy, there is a space for everyone to be a champion in their own way, no matter their circumstance. That’s why the title of the book is Go Green SG Champions!
My favourite thing about the story is that the children in the book were given free rein to come up with their own solutions to the missions given to them. Green Master Lim, the principal of the Green Academy in the book, doesn’t step in except to provide some guidance. And the children grew even more excited and confident as they went on their adventures to overcome the environmental challenges!
The sky’s really the limit for the younger generation and perhaps it is counterintuitive to set any parameters for them, for them to succeed. We need only empower them with knowledge and let them take flight with their imagination and vision to come up with solutions and innovation in the sustainability and climate change space for the future.
I hope that the children who read this book will understand that every single person has their strengths, like when each child had their own green superpower in the book, everyone has a way to contribute in their own way, regardless of age or abilities or even disabilities, and that it is important to work together as a collective to help better the Earth.
While Yina is not an author by profession, she is passionate about and works in the sustainability and climate change space. Yina wrote and published Go Green SG Champions with support from the SG Eco Fund, which provides funding for community projects that support environmental sustainability. Find out more about the SG Eco Fund here.
If there is one thing that I hope young readers take away from Go Green SG Champions, it would be that they get curious about sustainability after reading it! Curious enough to spark conversations among their friends or even ask their parents to tell them more about how Singapore’s environment used to be like.
When designing the scenes, I also wanted to make it as relatable as possible. For example, there is a scene in the book about the Singapore River and how polluted it was in the past. With that reference, kids can actually compare and see the transformation themselves and how clean and beautiful the Singapore River is now.
I hope that people don’t take our environment for granted. While there needs to be a balance between leading a greener lifestyle and being practical, every small step to being more sustainable in our everyday lives is a start.
Alan is an illustrator and comic artist and has enjoyed spreading happiness through his drawings for the last decade. He has illustrated many local children’s books, including The Green Guardians of Singapore and Time Travel, Singapore! Our Singapore River. Find out more about Alan’s works here.
Left to right: Khayra, Srikaarthika, Jun An
We felt so proud when we saw our characters in the Go Green SG Champions book, and also being able to represent our school!
We like drawing and want to be artists and illustrators when we grow up because we see that art can help convey important messages to people. When others read this book, they will understand that they can do their part for the environment, and we hope they can learn some eco tips along the way.
Srikaarthika: My character is Krishan, who can see into the future!
If the future is bad, he can show people and convince them to come together to prevent it from happening. If the future is good, he can show people how well Earth is doing if everyone helps to protect it.
Like, if we play our part to keep our Earth clean, then we have less trash in our environment and our landfill won’t run out of space!
Jun An: The character I helped designed is Jia Le, whose Go Green SG power is creating machines.
I think his power is very useful because he can create real solutions to help make the environment safe and clean!
I love nature, trees and plants, and I would like them to be protected. Let’s all help keep our environment safe for a long time!
Khayra: I designed Aisha and she can unite people and have them play their part to protect Earth.
I like how the Go Green SG champions are full of curiosity but are also nervous and excited when solving missions - because I would feel the same way!
If there was one thing I could change, it would be to get everyone to recycle right. When I pass by a blue recycling bin, there are usually many items there that don’t belong there. I hope people will make the effort to recycle properly!
Download the Go Green SG Champions storybook and other resources for kids at https://www.gogreen.gov.sg/resources/kids!
