The Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD) and Borouge, a leading provider of innovative plastics solutions, have launched the pilot phase of the Sustainable Campus Initiative (SCI), an extension of EAD’s award-winning environmental education programme, the Sustainable Schools Initiative (SSI).

 

The Sustainable Campus Initiative encourages university students in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi to take responsibility for their campus’s ecological footprint. EAD will do this by teaching the students how to lead, how to measure and assess their campus’s environmental footprint, and how to develop an action plan to reduce it.

 

H.E Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, Secretary General of EAD, commented: “The Sustainable Schools Initiative was immensely successful and students across the UAE showed great interest and passion in protecting the environment. EAD is proud to build on this achievement with the Sustainable Campus Initiative, which will further empower students to make positive environmental impacts and advocate for a sustainable future.”

 

During the pilot phase, EAD will continue to work closely with around 25 students from four university campuses in Abu Dhabi, who chose which key priority issue they wanted to focus on.

 

So far, EAD has trained the participating students on how to assess environmental performance at an individual, institutional and community level. Students are focusing on 5 key priority areas: Water, Waste, Energy, Climate Change and the Sustainable Use of Land. EAD has also guided them on how to undertake community outreach projects.

 

Once the pilot phase is completed in November 2014, EAD plans to invite more universities in Abu Dhabi to participate and an exclusive online Green Youth Majlis will be set up for the youth to network and exchange ideas with other students from around the world.

 

Photo: EAD and Borouge offering grant award to Women’s College in Khalifa City