Event – Page 9

A newer version of this challenge is available here.

Past Challenges:

The Sustainable Campus Challenge – 2013 is being organized as a parallel event to the Green Campus Summit for high schools, colleges and Universities of India. As part of this challenge, student teams will collaborate with a faculty/ staff adviser to develop a qualitative project narrative describing their effort for improving their campus sustainability quotient.

The sustainable campus status is attained by means of a fundamental transformation of the way in which the institution conducts their regular activities encompassing the academical, ecological, environmental, economical, social and cultural dimensions. This challenge encourages the teams to showcase their sustainable campus initiatives that plans, formulates, designs and implements a package of solutions by the campus community to reduce the environmental impact, enhance the campus sustainability and to protect the health and well-being of the surrounding community & ecosystem. This challenge is one such initiative which serves as a platform to not only showcase your institution‘s work on addressing the pressing issues of sustainability but also acts as a knowledge transfer medium to share, learn, develop and implement solutions with a cooperative approach.

The aims of the “Sustainable Campus Challenge – 2013” (SCC-2013) are as follows:

to engage students in assessing the economic and technical potential of sustainable solutions in their campuses;
to provide a platform for students, faculties and staffs to showcase their work on campus greening initiatives;
to provide opportunity to showcase innovative ideas on improving the sustainability of the campus;
to provide the winning entries, an opportunity to make a poster presentation at the International Green Campus Summit and network with participants from across the world;

A further aim of the event will be to document and disseminate the wealth of experiences available today by publishing all selected entries for the benefit of every institution.

Theme : Environmental Education , Sustainability Assessment, Waste Management, Water Resource Management, Energy Efficiency and Conservation, Energy Generation, Food Services, Land Use, Biodiversity Conservation & Habitat Restoration, Sustainable Transportation and Outreach Activities

APSCC team presented their research findings at the 8th International Conference on Urban Watershed Management-Water Systems in Rapidly Urbanizing Areas held at Tsinghua Universit, Beijing, China. The World has entered in the era of intense urbanization. The trend of rapid growth of cities and towns in developing countries is continuing, as exemplified by China, whose recent growth of urban population exceeds ten million per year. Such an extraordinary urban growth has exerted enormous pressures on water resources and the urban environment as well as ecological systems. Protecting the water environment is now one of the most important and pressing issues that demand great attention in all parts of the world. Urban watershed management is therefore critically important to the sustainable use of water resources and the protection of valuable ecosystems. Much research findings and experiences have been gained in recent decades on urban water environment protection technologies, modeling methodologies, and management strategies.

The International Watershed Management Conference series was inaugurated in 1997 at the University of Virginia to provide a forum for sharing research and experiences in watershed management practices. The second conference was held at the University of Virginia in 1999, the third in Taipei in 2001, the fourth in Shenzhen, China in 2004, the fifth in Chengdu, China in 2007, the sixth in Nanchang, China in 2009, and the seventh in Auckland, New Zealand in 2010. Tsinghua University will hold its Centennial celebration activities in 2011 in collaboration with the 8th International Conference on Urban Watershed Management: Water Systems in Rapidly Urbanizing Areas (8th ICUWM). The objective of the 8th ICUWM is to bring together professionals from various parts of the world together to discuss urban watershed management strategies; techniques and practices for lake ecosystem protection and resource utilization; integrated water quality control technologies, and institutional/organizational issues that are important in achieving a sustainable utilization of water resources.