American University of Sharjah
EN-5: Outreach Campaign

Recycling is Rewarding was a campus wide event that aimed to change community members usage of water bottles by making a small social transaction. Students, faculty and staff were challenged to exchange a minimum of 10 disposable plastic water bottles for a metal, reusable water bottles.

The one day event, which only held collection for 3 hours was able to collect 4,426 bottles from just over 200 community members.

The Emirates Environment Group is a professional working group devoted to protecting the environment through the means of education, action programs and community involvement. Since its establishment in 1991, the group has grown in both its programs and its membership. EEG is credited to the planting of over 2 million trees in the UAE. The two-fold objectives of the group involves Waste Management Programs and Tree Planting Initiatives. The Tree Planting Initiatives are divided into four categories under the umbrella of “For Our Emirates – We Plant”. The categories are The “You Can for a Tree” initiative, the “Together we Plant” initiative, the “Neighborhood Recycling Project”, and the “One Root, One Communi-Tree” project, under which the competition was held. As part of its efforts to help create a more sustainable world, American University of Sharjah (AUS) participated in this competition in two categories; the Toner Collection Campaign and the Mobile Collection Campaign. AUS Sustainability coordinated with AUS IT to divert the printer toner cartridges from the landfill as well as setup a long term recycling program with the cartridge suppliers. AUS Sustainability also ran an outreach campaign to the student, faculty and staff to turn in their old mobile phones. There was a multi-day advertising effort that lead to a day where mobile phones were collected at an event held by the AUS Sustainability staff.

Overall the university collected 949 toners, making AUS the Winner in the Tonner Collection Campaign and making AUS eligible for two trees planted under AUS name. The university also collected 124 used mobile phones, making AUS among the Top Ten performers in the Mobile Collection Campaign, which count for one additional tree. Participants in various EEG recycling projects are encouraged to collect and deposit recyclable items such as paper, plastic, old mobile phones, used printer toners, batteries, aluminum cans and tetra pac beverage cartons for recycling; and are then awarded with the opportunity to earn an indigenous tree planted under their names according to the amount of recyclable materials they have collected. So, on Saturday, December 12, 2015 three trees were planted in the name of American University of Sharjah in a designated area in Fujairah.

To help raise awareness on personal energy use, American University of Sharjah (AUS) Sustainability Division, the university division assigned to oversee AUS sustainability efforts, in collaboration with the AUS Residential Life Department held an energy reduction competition in the university’s dorms over the month of April 2016. The month was designated as an AUS Energy Awareness Month to help raise awareness among students on personal energy consumption and to improve energy efficiency in all AUS dormitories. The campaign focused on behavioral change requirements to help us become more responsible in the way we consume energy every day and reduce our carbon footprint. An awareness campaign included a weekly email sent out to students to give residents helpful tips on how to reduce their energy consumption and carbon footprints. Over 2,000 AUS students live on-campus and enjoy being close to the academic buildings, library, food court and Sports Complex. To host these students, the AUS Residential Halls consist of 13 dormitories, eight men's dormitories AB, CD, EF, GH, IJ, KL, MN and PQ and five women's dormitory buildings AB, CD, EF, GH and I. The competition paired dormitories which had similar designs and had almost similar occupancy in order to make a competition fair. Students enjoyed implementing simple changes in their daily routines to help achieve significant energy savings and noticeable reduction of their carbon footprints. By the end of April the sustainability division calculated the energy consumption of each dorm according to the meter readings and generated the KWH consumption per capita. And the results were good making the Energy Awareness Month campaign a success. Overall, the energy use in the AUS residential halls reduced by 8% during the month of April compared to March.