The School of Environmental Studies of Dharma Drum University hosted the workshop of “Actions toward Zero Carbon in Daily Life” at Degui Academy on April 22, 2009. The reason that DDU hosted this workshop on the Earth Day is to introduce various ways to reduce the carbon footprint in the daily life. 

Stephen Shu-hung Shen, Minister of Environmental Protection Administration of the Executive Yuan, gave an opening speech and inspired the audience by sharing his vision toward a low carbon Taiwan. Liu An-Chi, president of DDU, highlighted that the whole university implemented the principles of environmental responsiveness and energy efficiency. Lu Liteh, professor with the School of Environmental Studies, presented the 100 actions that were adopted by the community of the building of Degui Academy. This renovated building is expected to save at least 40 percent of energy consumption.   Jerry Chiou, the energy-saving expert from Green Comfortable Healthy Association, stated the first step for CO2 reduction is to understand the household electricity bills and to use enerny-saving light bulbs such as LED bulbs. He used a digital electricity reader and a set of different kinds of light-bulbs to show how efficient each kind of light bulbs would be.   Chien-Cheng Huang from Taiwan Green Productivity Foundation suggested to unplug the electric appliances if they are not in use. The key for energy saving is to “Use only what you need; save what you can save”.  The workshop of “Actions toward Zero Carbon in Daily Life” in Degui Academy went successfully with enthusiastic discussions among participants and speakers. For more tips to reduce energy and save costs, please refer to the website of Taiwan Green Productivity Foundation (http://www.tgpf.org.tw/), Green Comfortable Healthy Association (http://www.wretch.cc/blog/GCHA).