Rolling trophy for the 15th Inter College Environmental Public Speaking Competition lands on the shores of Sultanate of Oman

Emirates Environmental Group (EEG) held its 15^th Annual Inter College Environmental Public Speaking Competition on November 25^th – 26^th at Dubai Knowledge Village. The event was held under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mubarak Al Nahayan, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, as part of EEG’s mission to encourage the concept of Education for Sustainable Development in the region. The competition also served as EEG’s contribution to the UAE Innovation Week being held from 22^nd to 28^th November.

As the first ever educational carbon neutral pan-Arab environment competition of EEG, the event saw the participation of 51 teams and around 370 students, teachers, experts and visitors from across the UAE, GCC and MENA region. Through this competition, EEG has made a sustainable contribution to voluntary climate protection by offsetting 56.46 tonnes of CO₂ in high quality myclimate carbon offset projects. This makes 70% of EEG’s events in 2015 carbon neutral. EEG has pledged to move steadily towards that direction with making all of their events Carbon Neutral in 2016.

The two-day event brought forth diverse nationalities who presented in both Arabic and English, hence allowing for a sharing of different perspectives. The students were appreciative of this equal opportunity platform, and utilized it to its full potential through their fierce and competitive engagement with the topics. The variety of responses and delivery styles were a testament to how the competition develops students’ critical thinking, public speaking, and research skills.

In her opening speech, Mrs. Habiba Al Marashi, Chairperson of Emirates Environmental Group requested the audience to make sound decisions in order to avoid limiting the choices for generations to come. She pointed out that “this regional university level competition serves as a forum for the expression of ideas and thoughts and provide the platform to the future generation to develop innovative approaches to address the issues around sustainability.  She also pointed out that “Since the inception of this program in 2001, the path to growth has been a consistent effort towards building cooperation. We began this program with just 16 UAE teams.  In 2006, we began including institutions from some countries of the GCC, such as Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, until all countries of the Council became involved. 2012 saw the addition of teams from the MENA region. This year, the expansion has grown and we have succeeded in further expanding this regional program and be able to reach the shores of different countries with the addition of teams from Morocco and Jordan”.

A distinguished panel of jury was also invited to the event to judge the performance of the participating teams. This year the bilingual panel consisted of experts and dignitaries who included: Dr Redha Salman Director, STPs Department, Dubai Municipality; Dr Wasan Al Taie, Professor of Education; Mr. Hamdan Al Doukhi, Senior EHS Engineer-EPPCO, ENOC and Ms Alia Busamra Senior EHS Compliance Officer, ENOC and Ms Abeer Sajwani, Associate – Environment, Estidama Department, Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council. 

The winners of the 15^th Inter College Environmental Public Speaking competition were:

The event was supported by Dubai International Academic City –Dubai Knowledge Village and sponsored by ENOC.

With a strong alignment between EEG’s strategy to promote and encourage the concept of Education for Sustainable Development and ENOC’s vision and ambition of reducing its environmental footprint and promoting and increasing its positive social impact, this event provided the ideal platform for bringing together the private sector, public entities as well as students.  Emirates Environmental Group consistently implements this ideal through its other programs, ranging from educational workshops to waste management campaigns.       

Dr Waddah Ghanem, Chief EHSQ Compliance Officer & Acting Executive Director, EHSQ & Corporate Affairs said that ““Sustainability is at the core of our development and progress as a nation. We are proud to support EEG on this initiative that educates students on why sustainability matters and how they can play a role in it. This competition will help bring this complex topic to life to these students which is crucial to encouraging them to adopt sustainable lifestyles and make an impact in the future. Sustainability has now become a matter of our growth, prosperity and continuity as a nation and remains strongly grounded and founded in our very basic values and principles.”