From groceries to air-con: Learn the way a lot CO2 your life-style actually produces

Tan Ying Hua could also be solely six years outdated however local weather change is already on her thoughts.

“We need to make sure that the temperature in the world will not get too hot in the future. If it gets too hot, we might faint,” says the Kindergarten 2 scholar at My First Skool earnestly.

Ying Hua was impressed to do her half for the planet after she visited

The Carbon Gallery

not too long ago along with her class. And she has discovered it simple to take action with primary on a regular basis habits. 

“When I see some rubbish on the floor, I will help my mummy clear it and I will tell others that littering is wrong. Every night, I make sure that the lights at home are switched off before I sleep. I upcycle things like plastic bottles and change them into a flower pot!”

Through the gallery, Asia’s first carbon-focused experiential hub, FairPrice Foundation hopes to make carbon literacy, consciousness and training enjoyable and relatable for all ages. It does this with immersive and interactive components that revolve round easy-to-understand ideas like procuring, consuming and commuting. 

The gallery enhances the Singapore secondary faculty geography curriculum and helps main faculty sustainability and environmental studying, bridging classroom data on the advanced relationship between human and environmental techniques with interactive, real-world experiences and examples. 

Ying Hua’s favorite exercise is The Carbon Cart, the place she makes use of “carbon coins” to buy every day necessities. This supermarket-inspired idea challenges what you already know about grocery procuring. At a typical grocery store, you might pay on your favorite cereals, shampoo and contemporary greens with money or a faucet of your cellphone or card. But at The Carbon Cart, you get to “shop” for these with not more than 60 carbon cash. 

For occasion, a head of broccoli prices two cash, a packet of cheese goes for 31  cash and a slab of beef units you again 60 cash. What are carbon cash? Think of them as mock cash that illustrates the carbon value of every merchandise, which is correlated to its estimated carbon emission. Locally grown greens usually have the bottom carbon footprint and imported beef scores the very best. So, the extra aware you’re of the way you spend, the higher it’s for the planet. 

Mr Danny Wong, a college instructor at My First Skool, says that the hands-on actions that mirror real-life experiences made his preschoolers interested in sustainable residing and take into consideration how they’ll handle the setting. 

“They learnt about not wasting food and many of them became more mindful of their daily actions, and some even reminded adults to turn off the lights and air-conditioning when leaving the room,” he says.

It is not only kindergarteners who discover the gallery attention-grabbing. Upper secondary geography instructor Sarifah Tamsir additionally remembers how intrigued her college students have been to see summary ideas like carbon footprints and net-zero targets that they’d learnt about at school come to life.  

After their area journey, she seen lots of them changing into extra aware of their every day habits, with some even beginning their very own recycling drives.

“The visit sparked meaningful conversations about personal responsibility and environmental action. When students see real-world applications of what they learn, they feel a stronger sense of agency to contribute to sustainability efforts,” says Ms Sarifah. 

Open to the general public without cost, The Carbon Gallery was initiated and developed by sustainability social enterprise Terra SG and supported by the FairPrice Foundation, the philanthropic arm of FairPrice Group and the gallery’s founding companion.

The gallery’s studying setting displays the historical past of its premises, which beforehand housed the previous Loyang Primary School, now often called Vidacity.

By finish 2025, it expects to welcome 28,000 guests, largely college students from main and secondary colleges. It is a part of a collection of initiatives (see field) by FairPrice Group and FairPrice Foundation to foster group engagement in Singapore’s heartlands and encourage habits which are kinder to the setting. 

“We want to make carbon literacy fun, engaging and most importantly, easy for all in Singapore to understand – that’s our vision for The Carbon Gallery. If there’s one thing I hope visitors take away, it’s that anyone, no matter how old or young, can take small everyday steps that ladder up to make things easier on the planet for the next generation,” shares Ms Jean Khong, basic supervisor of FairPrice Foundation.

Mr Kelvin Wong, co-founder of Terra SG, shares that after operating sustainability programmes in colleges and communities for years, his crew discovered that many find out about local weather change however not how their every day actions are linked to carbon.

The Carbon Gallery is an opportunity to indicate them the hyperlink between carbon emissions, local weather change and every day existence. “Visitors can see, touch and make choices that show how everyday actions impact the planet,” says Mr Wong.

Kendra Moo, a secondary two scholar, likes how The Carbon Gallery takes her out of the classroom. 

“In school, we mostly learn through textbooks and discussions. At the gallery, the experience was more hands-on and visual. I could see how my choices affect the planet, and this made the topic more real and personal, not just something to study for exams,” she shares. 

An exhibit that left the best impression on her was ‘Every Day, A Little Better’ in Zone 2, the place guests can scan RFID discs on a sensor to observe and learn the way on a regular basis waste like glass bottles and even egg shells could be upcycled into quirky lamps and ground tiles.

There are additionally attention-grabbing details displayed throughout this zone, partaking guests to rethink their commuting habits and make their properties extra sustainable by doing issues so simple as setting one’s air-conditioner at 25 deg C and in addition utilizing followers to flow into the air extra effectively. 

Kendra says she is taking a extra aware effort to show off lights and followers when she leaves a room and to make use of reusable procuring baggage. “We are the generation that will live with the long-term effects of climate change, so it’s up to us to act now,” she says.

See your carbon footprint in action by planning a visit to The Carbon Gallery today.

Vidacity, 3A Pasir Ris Drive 6, #01-32/33, Singapore 519422
Monday–Sunday: 9am to 5pm (Closed 12.30pm to 1.30pm for lunch)
Eve of Public Holidays: 9am to 1pm • Closed on Public Holidays
^{*Subject to adjustments in 2026}