Students For Sustainability (S²)

Students for Sustainability (S²) was founded in 2019 to take action toward sustainability with measurable impact.

Its mission is to promote intellectual exchange on sustainability issues, support and collaborate with KAUST’s Sustainability Office, and enable student action that advances the global sustainability agenda and helps achieve the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.

We are always happy to have new members! Please get in touch if you want to participate, support, or provide feedback on our initiatives by following our social media channels below, or emailing us at s.square@kaust.edu.sa .

ACTIONS AND EVENTS

SUSTAINABILITY SEMINAR SERIES

The Sustainability Seminars Series, running since 2020, is the flagship event organized by KAUST Students for Sustainability, with support from the Office of Sustainability. This ongoing outreach program serves as a dynamic platform for fostering scientific engagement on the complexities of sustainability with the wider community. It facilitates intellectual exchange on pressing sustainable development challenges, connecting diverse perspectives. Open to the local community and streamed online for a national and global audience, the series has featured prominent industry leaders, renowned scientists, government officials, and sustainability professionals covering topics that align with the UN SDGs.

UN CELEBRATIONS

The group regularly organizes activities around such international UN celebrations as Earth Day and World Water Day. These range from workshops on upcycling plastic waste to educational activities that promote awareness of sustainable water use.

PRECIOUS PLASTIC PROJECT

Students For Sustainability with the support of Facilities Management and Averda created a Precious Plastic Project workspace at the Reuse Center near Discovery Square, KAUST. Here, interested community members can learn about plastic pollution, the properties of plastic, and how plastic recycling works.

The Precious Plastic workspace is a hands-on learning environment where visitors can operate the granulator and injection machine. It’s also a place where creative recycling ideas for plastic can be turned into reality.

COMMUNITY-WIDE AWARENESS

The group actively engages with the KAUST community to raise awareness on sustainable development. For example, the group branded community buses with the UN SDGs to educate the public and draw attention to the SDG framework.

They also organize Awareness Weeks for the entire KAUST community on a variety of sustainability topics.

Food Awareness Week centers on how better individual food habits—switching to plant-based diet, reducing food waste, and composting food waste, and more—can help save the planet.

Plastic Awareness Week includes informative talks and workshops on microplastics, raising awareness of the plastic problem and what each of us can do about it.

GLOBAL UNIVERSITY CLIMATE FORUM

S² has been selected for inclusion in the Yale University-led Global University Climate Forum (GUCF) in a competitive process involving over 160 applications from more than 40 countries.

Inspired by its success with Food Awareness Week, S² submitted in its application a proposal to reduce the climate impacts of campus dining using the UNEP Green Nudges approach. The six-month program sought to create momentum for positive long-term impact at KAUST and to serve as a model for other Saudi universities.

This has put KAUST in the spotlight locally and globally through the proposal’s inclusion in a University of Pennsylvania publication issued after the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP26) under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Glasgow, Scotland.