About Me
My name is Kayla and I am currently a student studying in Dulwich College Singapore. I am part of the 2022 UNITAR YAAP cohort and have had a passion for sustainability ever since moving to Singapore! Born in the UK, I moved to Singapore after living in London for 11 years, and my mother is from Indonesia while my father is from Australia. With all this cultural exposure, I have experienced how different places and countries have dealt with climate change and I strive to take action with these solutions. Apart from my passion for sustainability, I also love the arts! For example, I enjoy performing through musical theatre and playing the piano. On a personal level, in the future I would like to go into the field of science and explore the why and how behind all the incredible phenomenon around us. Additionally, thinking about the wider community and our world’s future, I also hope to be a leader in sustainability initiatives, creating solutions to protect and preserve this magnificent planet we have.
Project Description
Linking to SDGs 12, 11 and 2, my initiative “Xpiration” focuses on reducing domestic food waste in households and empowering people to consume responsibly. My team’s solution was to create an app that uses AI image recognition to create a convenient and accessible way of tracking expiry dates. I first came up with this idea when I saw my mother manually writing a list of the food in our fridge in order to keep track of their expiries; however I realized it was time consuming and inconvenient, which could prevent others who do not care as much about waste from organizing their food. My team believed that by removing these barriers, we could encourage users to reduce the food wastage in their homes.
Achievements Since UNITAR:
Now that UNITAR has finished, I have continued to pursue my sustainability passion by organizing and aiding my school on joining the WWF eco-school programme in Singapore, and gaining an eco school certification. I am very excited for where this will take me, as we have now successfully signed up! Currently I am brewing new ideas by talking with my fellow sustainability leaders and attending official committee meetings with our school’s caterers and sustainability panel.