Sri Lankan Universities Go Green
One-Day Trainings on SCP, Waste Management, Resource Efficiency Conducted in Colombo and Sabaragamuwa
11 January 2016, Colombo & Sabaragamuwa, Sri Lanka – The implementation of two small grant projects has successfully commenced in Sri Lanka, as a direct consequence and follow-up from the UNITAR/UNEP e-learning course “Introduction to Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) in Asia”, 21 September – 13 November 2015.
Within the framework of the e-learning course, Ms Uthpala Sankalpani and Ms Upendra Arjeewani from the National Cleaner Production Centre (NCPC) in Sri Lanka, received small grant funding for the implementation of their SCP Action Plans developed during the course "Introduction to SCP in Asia".
The two projects seek to introduce the concept of SCP on university level among students and faculty body in two of the main higher education institutions in the country: University of Sri Jayewardenepura and University of Sabaragamuwa (SUSL).
As the initial step of project "Greening a model University in Sri Lanka", Ms Uthpala Sankalpani conducted an awareness training programme at the Accounting Resource Centre, Department of Accounting of University of Sri Jayewardenepura on the 04 January 2016. Eng. V R Sena Peiris (founder and former CEO of the NCPC Sri Lanka) facilitated the programme, which was well attended by eager and enthusiastic management students, some of who heard about SCP for the very first time! The agenda of the event included a walk through the university to identify waste generation points, as well as the development of a road map for conducting a waste audit ofthe faculty.
The ultimate aim of this project is to develop a waste management strategy for university of Sri Jayewardenepura and imporve the capacity and understanding on SCP of studendt and faculty staff, thus contributing for enabling SCP in Sri Lanka.
Similarly, a one-day Capacity Building & Awareness Programme on SCP was held on 6th January 2016 at the Faculty of Applied Science, Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka. The workshop enjoyed significant interest with more than 250 students and academic staff from 4 faculties attending the event. It was supported by key sustainability experts in Sri Lanka, including Eng V R Sena Peiris, Mr. Nimal Perera (Sri Lanka Energy Managers Association) and Mr. Gamini Senanayake (national focal point for the SWITCH-Asia programme).
The workshop is part of a larger project implemented by Ms Upendra Arjeewani, aiming at engaging university students in assessing the current use of materials, water and energy resources in the university, thus building their capacity and understanding in the area. The project will result in concrete proposals for resource efficiency improvements and the implemention of some of these improvements on the campus grounds. In addition, a final objective of the initiative is to promote the inclusion of SCP and resource efficiency in the standard curriculum of last year university students majoring in environmental management.
The projects will be implemented within the next three months with the support and facilitation by UNEP and UNITAR. Funding for the small grant project is provided under the SWITCH-Asia Programme of the European Union.
