Project Background: The Problem
Our planet is experiencing unprecedented levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, primarily due to human activities such as fossil fuel combustion for energy and transportation. This rise in CO2 is a major contributor to climate change, leading to many significant environmental effects. For example, there has been increased flooding and droughts due to intensified weather patterns. The urgency to develop effective strategies for combating these changes has never been more critical, as problems will continue to get significantly worse.
The planet is also struggling with an escalating crisis of plastic waste. Each year, around 400 million metric tons of plastic are thrown away into oceans, creating detrimental impacts on wildlife and ecosystems. Plastic pollution threatens marine species and adds microplastics into the food chain, which ultimately affects almost every part of the cycle. Although recycling has helped keep some plastics out of the environment, only around 9% of plastics are recycled, suggesting the need for a more long-lasting solution.
In order to respond to these severe environmental issues, our team has decided to align our focus with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDGs were created in 2015 to address urgent environmental, political, and economic challenges around the world. For our project, we will be focusing on 4 major SDG Goals which are the following:
We selected these particular goals because they align closely with our project’s focus and most effectively address the challenges stated above. By focusing on education, responsible consumption and production, climate action, and partnership for the goals our team seeks to address both the causes and consequences of carbon dioxide emissions and plastic pollution.
Public Surveys (Online & Offline)
To assess public awareness and understanding of climate change and bioplastics, our SDG team conducted both online and offline surveys. By having a wide range of people to survey, we were able to obtain a more comprehensive report of the public’s perception of climate change and bioplastics.
In-Person Survey
Online Survey
Conclusion
The combined results of the online and in-person surveys revealed that there was a complex relationship between climate change, bioplastics, and consumer behavior. While the online survey indicated a mixed level of awareness regarding climate change and bioplastics, with the majority of respondents rating their understanding of climate change at 5/10 (Figure 3-1), the in-person survey highlighted a significant knowledge gap in bioplastics (Figure 3-1). Despite this, 82% of offline respondents were willing to purchase bioplastics if they were priced the same as traditional plastics, aligning with the 93.6% of people from the online survey willing to purchase bioplastics if they were priced the same as traditional plastics (Figure 3-2).
Also, in the online survey, approximately 87.2% of the respondents considered quality as the most important factor when purchasing new items, leaving no respondents to choose environmental sustainability as their priority for buying goods (Figure 3-3). Although it wasn’t placed as a priority to any of the respondents, around 63.8% of the surveyees rated their concern about the environmental impact of traditional petroleum at 7 or greater, reflecting a relatively high level of concern (Figure 3-4).
The survey results reveal that there is a gap between awareness, concern, and action when it comes to bioplastics and sustainability. Although both surveys revealed that many people had concerns over the environmental impacts of traditional plastics, they prioritized factors such as price and quality over environmental sustainability when making purchasing decisions. This reveals that even though most of the public knows the detrimental effects of plastics on our environment, practical concerns are still seen as more important, highlighting the necessity for more education on the environmental benefits of bioplastics.
Public Interviews
During July, Korea-HS visited Intercharm & Agri & Food Tech Start-up Rising Expo 2024, Seoul Energy Dream Center, and Dongdaemun Market and was able to interview multiple, different people and companies as well. We have mostly asked personal opinion-based questions to gain different responses and help us to clearly identify what our focus should be in terms of bioplastics and our project in general.
#1: Seoul Energy Dream Center Director Interview
We interviewed the director of Seoul Energy Dream Center about climate change and its causes. He told us that the primary factor that affects climate change is energy that is used for the maintenance of the building (about 70%). He believed that it’s humans who cause climate change.
#2: Interview with Waste Designer Haneul Kim
We interviewed the plastic waste designer Hanuel Kim. He started using plastic waste because he thought that the waste of masks was serious. He believes that the standards and importance of bioplastics as a material in the renewable design industry are already high. Since it is a material that can be mass-produced with a lot of people involved, he thinks that bioplastic is a material that has great value and influence compared to tens or hundreds of artists. He also agreed that climate change caused by plastics is a human problem rather than a problem with the material itself.
#3: Interview in COEX: Intercharm & Agri & Food Tech Start-up Rising Expo 2024
We interviewed cosmetic companies and biotechnology companies in COEX to gather information about bioplastics whether they know about it or not and how they think about it. Half of them didn’t know about bioplastic, but half of them sincerely responded to our interview.
When we asked many cosmetic companies, their answers were all different. Some companies didn’t believe that bioplastics could help global warming and the change in the environment, but some other companies thought bioplastics was a helpful measure to prevent global warming.
We also interviewed the company that uses bioplastics as their product, and they sincerely answered us: he thinks the durability of bioplastics is a little lower than that of general plastic products. When actually used, there are products that can only be used properly if various conditions are met, so he thinks that is an issue. He doesn't think bioplastics are the ultimate solution to environmental problems, but he thinks that they will grow as one of the major solutions.
#4: Micro-enterprise Interview at the Dongdaemun Market
Since it’s enterprises that use plastics the most, we interviewed micro-enterprises in the market. Not everyone was welcoming us, so we could get the answer from one of them.
During the interview, we asked why she thinks enterprises use plastics more than any other matter.
She was not the owner of the store, but she told us that when she had a conversation with her boss, they use plastics because their advantage for the ability to hold hot things is very big even though paper products are actually cheaper than plastics.
SDG Goal Activities
Sustainable Development Goal #4: Quality Education
Our focus of SDG #4 is ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all (4.7). We are aiming to address equality among everyone and eliminate disparities in education in order to contribute to society's overall development. As education lays the groundwork for every aspect of the world, promoting quality education will improve other field sectors and act as a silver bullet. People will come up with sophisticated and unique ideas based on the education they received. Therefore, knowing the importance of education in addressing such issues, we have mainly done two activities: DIY Bioplastic Instruct and Poster/Pamphlet Distribution.
DIY Bioplastic Instruct
We believe that educating and instructing young students is very important in spreading awareness of bioplastics and climate change so we decided to initiate an activity called, “Low Carbon Solid Soap DIY Instruct.” In order to do this, we created our own mini instruction book and sent it to the following young students. More than 20 students participated in this learning and were successfully able to create the product.
The mini instruction book not only included the steps that students had to follow but also some information that they could access about climate change and bioplastics. It was made so that all details could be easily approached no matter what age. In the book, it has:
- Step-by-Step Process of the Creation of Low Carbon Solid Soap DIY
- Tips/Facts about Climate Change (5 Rs)
- The Usage of Low Carbon Solid Soaps
[File: Mini Instruction Book PDF]
It was created in a square shape where it can be looked like a mini book that can be easily accessed by those who are using this KIT, but especially for young students. With these certain aspects and characteristics we have created, we were successfully able to bring education to the students regarding bioplastics and how it relates to climate change. The young students were able to discuss the topics in the book freely without hesitation and mentioned what they could do to create change in society regarding climate change. Overall, bringing enjoyment, entertainment, and education at the same time seems to be a good idea for both the young students and us as there were both positive results in the end.
Pamphlet Distribution
To reach a wider audience when spreading awareness through education about climate change and our project, throughout the month of August, our team members created informative posters that highlighted key aspects of plastic pollution and its detrimental impacts on our environment. After creating the posters, we developed a plan that maximized their reach.
Due to the diverse backgrounds of our team members, who all attend various schools worldwide, we were able to implement a widespread distribution strategy for these posters, allowing us to reach a diverse global audience. We also placed posters in public facilities like libraries to further increase our range.
Ultimately, we were able to hand out over 200 pamphlets across various schools such as Johns Creek High School, Chadwick International School, Emma Willard School, and Branksome Hall Asia. By informing students and school communities about various environmental issues and solutions, we were able to significantly contribute to Goal 4.7 of helping “learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development”.
Sustainable Development Goal #12: Responsible Consumption and Production
Our focus of SDG #12 is to substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling, and reuse (12.5). We are aiming to focus on efficiently using natural resources and reducing waste generation. By balancing the needs of current and future generations, everyone can have long-lasting access to natural resources. To address this global issue, we believe that creating policies and proposals would be significant in building such ways and actions in relation to SDG #12. Therefore, we have created a business proposal at our iGEM Online Ted Talk Summit.
Business Proposal
During our SDG Conference, we developed a business proposal introducing our product to different biotechnology companies. Our proposal first displayed some of our bioplastic’s competitive advantages, which include affordability, sustainability, durability, and versatility. Also, we included how it is similar structurally to traditional petroleum-derived plastics, making it the perfect alternative. By emphasizing its advantageous traits, we successfully showcased how the benefits of our project make it significantly more appealing to bioplastic consumers.
Our proposal also explored various marketing strategies. We wrote a strategic marketing plan, which featured information such as advertisements, financial projections, and distribution methods. Our advertising strategy mainly focused on raising consumer awareness about the detrimental effects of plastic pollution, and our distribution plan aimed to commercialize our product through both online and in-person sales.
Overall, our business proposal directly addresses the goals of SDG 12, as it promotes responsible consumption and production patterns. Through our business proposal, we advocated for choosing a more sustainable path by offering our bioplastics and also increased global awareness of the importance of bioplastics through our advertisement methods. Furthermore, our solution offered cost-effective production, thus producing a transition towards a more eco-friendly future.
Sustainable Development Goal #13: Climate Action
Our focus of SDG #13 is to improve education, awareness-raising, and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction, and early warning (13.3). Our focus was using the impact that education brings in relation to the SDG Goal #4 Quality Education and so as students, we had a consensus that using Instagram and social media would be the best choice in terms of spreading awareness and education regarding topics like climate change. Therefore, we created Instagram Posts and our own hashtags related to the SDGs, climate change, bioplastics, etc.
Instagram Posts
While working on the activities related to SDG #4: Quality Education as well as the climate change surveys, we believed that it is important to spread further awareness about climate change and the usage of bioplastics; in order to do this, we thought that posting things on social media, Instagram would be the most useful as people these days use the platform the most out of all. We created different Instagram posts that answer questions related to climate change and the SDG Goals as well. Such posts included information about the problem that our project focuses on (climate change), bioplastics, carbon capture, waste management hierarchy, etc.Moreover, we participated in the Keeping the Promise campaign, hosted by the United Nations, which commits to achieving the SDGs by 2030.
By posting this information, we were able to reach and bring a larger audience on the situation with climate change, the actions that youths can take, and how bioplastics not only connect to, and impact the overall societal global issues but also especially on the environment (climate change), addressing the SDG Goal #13.3.
Instagram SDG Hashtag Event
With our posts, we believed that there should be a collection created where all the posts can be seen at once, and therefore created our own Instagram post format. Starting in June, we started to build posts with the engagement of the “Instagram SDG Hashtag event”, #igem_2024sdg. We were able to upload a variety of posts related to climate change, SDGs, and our project in general.
Sustainable Development Goal #17: Partnership for the Goals
Our focus of SDG 12 is to respect each country’s policy space and leadership to establish and implement policies for poverty eradication and sustainable development (17.15). As students who are focusing on topics like climate change, we believed that it is important to bring organizations and clubs together and call for action by building specific policies and discussions regarding those global issues. To create collaboration and meet this goal, we decided to have two main activities which are the iGEM Online Ted Talk Summit and Series Podcasts.
Online Ted Talk Summit
The primary purpose of this iGEM Ted Talk Summit was to put on a focus on SDGs and the global issue, climate change. We hosted an Online Ted Talk Summit on August 31st from 11 PM KST to 1 AM KST by gathering and creating connections between clubs and organizations. Representatives from clubs and organizations were able to share their current initiatives and projects, gain inspiration, and collaborate with each other with regard to the SDGs and building proposals or resolutions.
A total of 20 organizations, including Korea-HS, JHS Stem Research, Drug Zero, Operation Christmas, Science SNAP, S Cube (Serene Seekers Society), Youth for Unicef, Cadence for a Cause, Hidden Figures, and others, participated in the conference.
The conference consisted of 3 sessions with group discussions, presentations, and proposal building that were all targeted at SDGs #13 and #17. Firstly, with the group discussions, each of the leaders answered questions as an individual based on their personal opinions and experiences as representatives. Then, there were presentations from each club or organization, introducing themselves briefly with their goals and initiatives. All of the groups had something in common which was open to collaboration and aim to spread more awareness. Finally, after all of the introductory activities, the main activity was building proposals. The representatives were divided into two groups with the following tasks:
#1 - Build a proposed resolution in achieving SDG Goal #17: Partnership for the Goals in relation to SDG Goal #13: Climate Action
#2 - Build a business proposal thinking that you all are one big company that is selling bioplastics (cost-benefit analysis)
Through this, all organizations and clubs were able to discuss and build connections with each other related to the SDG goals and move a step forward in achieving SDGs #13 and #17. Building and proposing a resolution and a business proposal inspired leaders to take further action with their focuses and a bigger impact on society. Furthermore, with such leadership and collaboration in these activities and in the Ted Talk Event, Korea-HS was successfully able to achieve our focus of SDG 17.15, “establishing and implementing policies.”
Resolution Proposal
During the iGEM Online Ted Talk Summit, one of the leader groups created a resolution (MUN-based) that focuses mostly on SDG #13: Climate Action, but at the same time emphasizes SDG #17: Partnership for the Goals as this activity itself required collaboration and cooperation between the representatives. It mentions the individual actions and initiatives that each of the clubs and organizations have made and their future steps and implementations in climate change. In addition, the collaborative strategies were mentioned by the participants which can be brought and therefore, connect back to the achievement in SDG #17.
Series Podcasts
To further extend our relationship and collaboration with different organizations and leaders, we decided to create a “series podcast”. This series podcast is a podcast session where different leaders from different organizations come together to discuss a specific topic that is related to climate change and bioplastics. As this podcast is a “series”, there are episodes that continue from one to another, with an introduction to school clubs, then about bioplastics, consumer experiences with bioplastics, and personal experiences as leaders. As students who listen to music and podcasts, we believe that this initiative will definitely bring emphasis to global partnership as a variety of discussions are built on one specific topic. Not only does it focus on collaboration but it can also spread awareness to society and people about such themes and topics related to climate change and the SDGs overall. This series podcast has been posted on Podbean, a website that anyone can access to listen to podcasts for free.
Conclusion & Reflection
With the uprising discussions about climate change, Korea-HS’s team decided to focus and further investigate bioplastics, the topic of “climate change” in general, and ways to address them. To do so, we have organized and categorized the activities we have done with our targeted SDG Goals which are a total of 4:
- SDG #4 - Quality Education
- SDG #12 - Responsible Consumption and Production
- SDG #13 - Climate Action
- SDG #17 - Partnership for the Goals
Strengths
Bringing positive results and implications, as a team, we were able to educate different (age) range of students and people with the creation of a bioplastic kit and distribution of pamphlets (about our project), achieving SDG #4, creating a business proposal as representatives and leaders in different organizations, achieving both SDG #12 and #17, building Instagram Posts and creating our own Instagram SDG Event (spreading awareness about climate change), achieving SDG #13, meeting different people from all over the world by hosting an Online Ted Talk Summit and building proposals together as well as building our own Series Podcasts with collaborations with other leaders where they can freely talk and discuss a specific topic (based on their personal experiences and opinions), achieving SDG #17 at the end. The Online Ted Talk Summit not only focused on collaborations and cooperations with different organization representatives but also, talked about actions in terms of other various SDG Goals. With the Series Podcasts, different speakers were able to have a comfortable conversation with each other talking about a specific topic focusing on what they believe in based on their personal experiences, which mostly were around 5 minutes (not too long). Overall, we were able to bring a wider, sustainable effect to society with both education and collaboration, connecting a global scale of impact in the SDGs.
Limitations/Improvements
Although we were able to successfully achieve all targeted 4 SDG Goals, there was a challenge and definitely an improvement we can make if we can go back to the process. One obstacle that we faced was for the SDG #4 - Quality Education. As a team, we believed that we could expand the educational activity by visiting a children's care center and spreading more awareness about our project as well as bioplastics through DIY activities. However, this wasn’t possible due to the difficulties in schedule matching with the center. It would have been better if we tried to find another way we could set up a meeting with them (such as online meetings) and therefore expand our project wider with students.
Next Steps
We would like to focus on addressing more of SDG #12: Responsible Consumption and Production. As compared to the other SDGs, there is only one activity that we have done and definitely we believe that there can be more. To do this, we may create a magazine that consists of all the information regarding reducing waste generation with the 5Rs. Creating a magazine would definitely emphasize SDG #12 and also SDG #4 as people can read and access the information easily. We could also promote the magazine through all schools as well as public libraries and spread the information and the goal further to the whole society. Online versions could be created as well for quick access. Consequently, we can develop our project in a more sustainable and positive impact to achieve SDG #12 with the 5Rs.