Summary of the Event
The event kicked off at 7am GMT with a morning yoga video performed by Adriene.The Virtual Symposium hosted over 25 renowned sustainability leaders, environmentalists, researchers, specialists on health, botanic conservation, resource management sustainable agriculture and building from around the world. Speaker such as Jeffrey Sachs, Adenike Akinsemolu, Marc Rosen, amongst others share their insights on our path towards sustainable development.
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
As a technical Specialist at Qatar Green Building Council, Ruba has managed and prepared a variety of sustainability oriented programs, workshops, guidelines and initiatives to promote sustainability and green practices.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Olukoya Obafemi is an architect with many years of professional practice in architecture and construction. He obtained his PhD in architectural heritage conservation from Brandenburg Technical University, Germany.
Q & A (SELECTED)
Olukoya Obafemi: Green schools arose in the wake of achieving sustainability. How can stakeholders make them universal and accessible?
Ruba Hinnawi: We want Green School to be remotely as mentioned and we are open to everyone to participate in transforming any school into a green school. A green school doesn’t have to be designed from the beginning to be a green school. This is a good room and opportunity for every stakeholders to participate in this. So, private company, NGOs, government, anyone can participate in this, they can help a green school to become by corporate social responsibility organization (CSO) doing more to a green school, initiating a new project or helping to influence through funding any initiative the school is launching.
Olukoya Obafemi: Green School promises a holistic learning experience for children and young adults. In what ways does this differ from regular schools that have been a major contributor to both national and global development?
Ruba Hinnawi: There is a big difference between a regular school and a green school because, what we are focusing on is not just increasing the networking in curriculum and relation to environment education. We need to provide hands on activity, we need to engage students, reflect on all what they have studied in the book about the environment and caring about the environment into real time project so that they can see the impact of the activities or of their actions on the environment. And this is the main important difference between regular school and green school.
Olukoya Obafemi: The Principles of Green and Sustainability Science by Dr. Akinsemolu talks about the usage of “community-integrated entrepreneurial learning,” citing the Green School in Bali. How can educators incorporate this learning model to achieve sustainable development?
Ruba Hinnawi: Of course, community has a great role in sustainability. A Green school aim to include everyone in this green journey and disseminate the message to the whole community. It can be of help actually for any sustainable environment current activities. Meaning that the school can help in this for workshops, sessions that allow people to know about being sustainable. They can allow their neighbors or neighborhood to use their recycle bins or could use the school ground in an indirect way to engage the community to be more healthy and more active. The school can be an attracting point of sustainability. To fund a school initiative is another way to engage the community. For instance, a school trying to launch a composting project where the whole neighborhood can utilize and contribute to as it is open to community to try to play a part in the initiative or role in the program. Green School values the connection as the community is part of the school, the school is part of the community and so is a win win relationship.
Rakesh Verma (Audience): How can my school eco-club members participate in lockdown on sustainability as they could when school was open?
Ruba Hinnawi: I should mention and this is very important that what you really need is not just only an environmentally sustainable students but we need this student to disseminate this message back to their family and friends. So, in that way we also want to drive a social impact. This is a great opportunity for students during the lockdown to take all the knowledge, all they’ve learnt and probably achieved at their school back to their homes and implement them. They could start a garden at their homes, start planting, re-growing fruit from fruit-seeds or composting project.
Quotes
“Green School gives a great consideration to site connectivity and to nature”
“There is a big difference between a regular school and a green school.”
Top Comments
I believe your Qatar experience in a request to be spread to other countries- Hala Abosotah
FURTHER READING
Gough, Noel & Gough, Annette. (2019).The Green Schools Movement around the World.
Somwaru, L. (2016).The Green School: a sustainable approach towards environmental education: Case study. Braz. J Sci Technol.