The Environment and Protected Areas Authority (EPAA)announced that the ninth edition of the Sharjah Sustainability Award is underway with 123 public and private schools, and 257 university students participating. The EPAA announced the launch of the award in October 2020, with several precautionary measures and special conditions for participants in line with the country’s guidelines to ensure the safety of schools and students amid the current coronavirus pandemic.
The award is held throughout the academic year and includes two categories, the first for school students and the second for university students. This year’s award conditions requires participating schools to develop a plan of precautionary measures to implement the project due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, new domains and categories with precautionary measures have been added, such as for example, the Outstanding Student’s Award category that encourage students to implement the project of reducing the consumption of electricity and water at home. New domains and categories have been also designed to support and encourage schools and students to participate and implement their projects through working remotely. For example the domains of the Environmental Innovator Best Environmental Initiative in the Artificial Intelligence, and the Creative Writing of a Short Story and the production of short Movie domain which its themes are all related to the current Coronavirus pandemic.
Her Excellency Hana Saif Al Suwaidi, Chairperson of the Environment and Protected Areas Authority (EPAA), said, “The Sharjah Sustainability Award is one of the most important programs that EPAA hosts and that aims to consolidate the principles of sustainable development in the educational sector,through promoting the spirit of competition among students in schools and universities to invent and produce extraordinary sustainable projects that contribute to the development of sustainability on ground, in line with the EPAA’s mission to inspire the youth and encourage a passion for our natural environmental ecosystems.”
Her Excellency added, “We are pleased to have launched the ninth edition of the Sharjah Sustainability Award for both the Universities category and the Green Schools category in October, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Sharjah Education Council, and Sharjah Private Education Authority. The number of schools and educational centers that have participated is 123from various emirates of the country, and 275students from public and private universities in Sharjah taking part.
Participating Students from different Colleges and Disciplines at Universities
275 university students participated in various different domains of the SSA that covered each of the award fields, like Applied Scientific Research, Assessment Scientific Research, Designing a Model for Sustainable Environmental Solutions that can be applied on ground, and the domain of Sustainable Architectural Design in the Built Environment, Photography, Production of Green Movie, and the Smart Application of Information on Smart Phones domain.
Virtual workshops
Due to precautionary measures in place to help curb the spread of COVID-19, workshops were held virtually for participating schools on the digital video application “Zoom”, aiming to inform the participants about the importance of the award in terms of its objectives, conditions for participation in it and criteria for evaluating the participating projects, with the focus on the importance of adhering to the terms and criteria of the participation domain as well as the importance of adhering to the terms and specifications of the final project file, as a basic indicator qualifying to win the award. In addition to answering the inquiries and questions of the participants from students, coordinators and officials from schools, youth centers and Sajaya young ladies centers.
The Sharjah Sustainability Award aims to create a sustainable green environment whilst supporting the spirit of competition between different schools and universities. Its mission is to encourage students to find and apply innovative sustainable solutions to pressing environmental issues, and ultimately raise awareness amongst these students of the importance of preserving our environment.
The Environment and Protected Areas Authority (EPAA) in Sharjah seeks to protect the environment, natural reserves, wildlife and their biodiversity through scientific studies and research. The authority publishes educational awareness material, implements policies for environmental awareness and programs, and launches specialized campaigns in the field of environmental awareness and education.