YÖK initiates project to promote sustainability at campuses

KONYA

In a bid to turn university campuses into environmentally friendly spaces, the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) has launched a project to promote sustainable solutions, the YÖK president has announced.

“As YÖK, we have recently been concentrating on digital and green skills,” YÖK head Erol Özvar noted. “In this regard, we have developed a sustainable and climate-friendly campus initiative to help our institutions have greener, more efficient and socially responsible campuses.”

The initiative also aims at producing a generation of young people who are aware of the need for green skills, Özvar stressed.

Green skills refer to the beliefs, attitudes, knowledge, and abilities needed to create and promote a resource-efficient and sustainable society, according to the definition by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

The initial phase of this project, emphasizing the significance of such green skills, involves 11 university campuses, Özvar noted.

He further mentioned that, through this initiative, they hope to lower carbon footprint, improve waste management, preserve water resources and increase energy efficiency.

“We prioritize resource efficiency, cost reduction and renewable energy source diversification in order to accomplish these objectives,” Özvar explained.

In another effort to promote a sustainable environment, scores of volunteers across the country will participate in a simultaneous forest cleaning event slated to take place on Oct. 20.

Initiated with the joint efforts of the Agriculture and Forestry Ministry and the Youth and Sports Ministry, the event aims to improve awareness of forest conservation, develop sustainable environmental consciousness and increase the environmental awareness of the youth.

As part of this initiative, volunteers will gather environmentally harmful materials and adequately classify them for recycling.