 |
| The newly formed Environmental Committee at Doha College, are passionate about raising awareness throughout the school community about the importance of going green |
As students prepared to return to Doha College in September this year, there was a group of teenagers working hard to prepare for the creation of the first sixth form environmental committee at the school.
Led by 17-year-old Amani, the committee was launched to create programmes and initiatives aimed at promoting environmental awareness and action throughout the school.
“We thought it was time that the school finally became more environmentally friendly,” said Amani, adding “we want to get as many young people involved as possible.”
Doha College’s primary school has already been running a recycling programme, and their success was a major part of the inspiration for the seniors’ efforts.
“My sister pushed me into wanting to do more,” explained Maryan, “she asked me, ‘if the juniors can do it, then why can’t the seniors?’ and I was encouraged to join the new environmental committee.” “The school has been really supportive of our efforts so far, and we just want to carry on raising awareness for the students,” she added.
At the start of the year, the school introduced a number of recycle and reuse bins throughout the college, aimed at reducing the amount of paper that is used during the academic year.
“Last year we used over 1mn sheets of paper in the school, and we found that pretty shocking,” explained Amani, adding that a reduction in paper usage is one of the committee’s main objectives.
Other aims of the group include reducing energy usage by between five and 10%, recycling plastic, introducing reusable water bottles, initiating beach cleanups, introducing a plant into every room in the school and recycling mobile telephones.
The committee also hopes to introduce a ‘green day’ fundraiser at the school and launch a competition to encourage students to design posters to promote energy saving measures, as well as producing a newsletter on recycled paper at the end of the year to update the school community about what has been achieved. Environmental awareness is set to be a significant part of the school’s development in the future, and last month, a group of UK-based architects presented their designs for the school’s new location.
While sustainability was an important part of the brief for the designers, the environmental committee also had a chance to meet with the architects by themselves to discuss the green features of each of the buildings.
The group of students decided to start the committee to help promote environmental awareness after realising the significance of the problems associated with climate change.
“Last year I was involved in the Dragon’s Den competition presenting the idea for screens to be installed around the school to reduce paper usage,” said Marilou, 17, adding “that is what made me want to get more involved with these kinds of initiatives.”
Her peer, Umm-Kulthum, 16 said: “I realised how much of a positive impact each individual can have on the environment. I wanted to be more environmentally friendly and encourage others to do so.”
The group expressed their hopes to see more of their fellow students adopting environmentally aware behaviour in the future.
“Everyone knows we’re a committee now, but we want people to get involved willfully, rather than having to remind and force them all the time,” said Adrina, 16.
“There are many steps that they can be taking by themselves, and it would be a great success for us if they could do this without needing to be reminded by us,” she added.
This group of young students have accepted that changes need to be made to deal with the problems associated with climate change in the future.
“Its really important. If you learn when you are young then it is easy to continue in the future,” said Amani, adding “but when you get older it is harder to change.”
“It is up to us to make the change, we will be the ones dealing with the problems in the future,” she added.
