Life of a Green Nudge Intern: Audrey’s Reflections from Sept – Oct 2020

Interested to learn what goes on behind-the-scenes at Green Nudge? Here are some thoughts by Audrey who is on an internship with us through her school’s programme called ‘Quest’. These are some of her weekly experiences during her time at Green Nudge from September to October 2020.

Hello everyone! My name is Audrey and I am an intern at Green Nudge. I got this internship opportunity through a program at my high school called Quest. As someone who has always been passionate about environmental conservation and sustainability, I wanted to share my experiences working here and applying my passion to a professional workplace.

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Before My First Day of Interning

Very excited to start working with Green Nudge tomorrow! They do important environmental work in Singapore by raising awareness and working with companies to try and reach a zero-waste outcome.

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First Week

Extremely grateful for the opportunity I have to work at Green Nudge. I am learning so much about the environmental work being done in Singapore, including the recently passed Resource Sustainability Act. This important legislation aims to combat packaging waste, food waste, and electronic waste to move towards a circular economy and sustainable future.

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Second Week

Working at Green Nudge has allowed me to see all the creative ways they help other organizations go green. It is really inspiring how passionate the whole team is about spreading the message of sustainability in Singapore. For example, I recently got to attend one of their workshops online and learned how to cut down on fabric waste by repurposing an old shirt into a tote bag!

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Third Week

This week at Green Nudge, I got to experience their hands-on Ecobricks workshop! Ecobricks are plastic bottles stuffed with clean plastic waste and are used as reusable building blocks. The idea first started in Guatemala as a solution to reduce plastic pollution and create things like planter beds and buildings. Here in Singapore, Green Nudge is helping to reduce the amount of plastic being sent to landfills by creating their own ecobricks out of used plastic waste from the public.

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Fourth Week

This week at Green Nudge, we went out to survey a few areas to see if they could potentially be a site for future beach cleanups. At this small beach near Yishun dam, I was surprised to see a large amount of trash as it wasn’t considered a recreational beach and didn’t have many visitors. Seeing a large number of plastic straws washed up at a relatively untouched beach was a strong reminder that the trash you throw away always ends up back in the environment.

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Fifth Week

This week I got to help facilitate a Green Nudge beach cleanup for some university students (with social distancing measures, of course). It was really great to see our site survey from last week near Yishun dam become a successful beach cleanup. Participants could see the effects of plastic pollution on the environment firsthand and picked up 18 bags of trash!

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Sixth Week

This week at Green Nudge, I got to interview my supervisor and find out more about his leadership style in the company. It has been wonderful to work with the passionate Green Nudge team and experience the collaborative workplace culture. I hope I can take the leadership and teamwork skills I have learned here and apply them to future projects and jobs.

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Seventh Week

Working at Green Nudge has allowed me to learn so much about other social enterprises and businesses in Singapore that do important work. For these groups to do their work and support communities, many turn to grants to fund their projects. I was happy to help research the available grants in Singapore and was interested in understanding the arising trends and criteria to help passionate groups make their ideas a reality.

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Keep a lookout for Audrey’s next blogpost which will feature her weekly reflections for the month of November 2020!