My  youth group, Green Hope UAE,  is working on several ground level initiatives involving the community , to  spread awareness on sustainable development .   Our endeavor is to adopt  a bottom up approach in engaging the future generations , i.e. children and youth , in shifting towards a sustainable lifestyle by adopting  environmentally friendly consumption patterns , waste reduction and practicing resource efficiency.

This month we conducted a workshop at one of Dubai?s leading international schools, which was attended by over 200 students and teaching staff. The workshop focused on first explaining the concept of sustainable development  to the students , its three main objectives and the way forward in formulating the post2015 agenda.  Reduction of waste and concepts of recycling were  explained.

The participants learnt that waste generation is directly proportional to urbanization and municipal solid waste grows faster than urban populations because of increasing consumption and shortening product life spans.  Therefore by adopting sustainable consumption patterns within civil society they could positively impact the quality and quantity of waste and promote resource efficiency.

The workshop was highly interactive and the participants learnt about various facts related to the environment . The students were greatly engaged in identifying ways and means of waste reduction not only in their homes but within the school as well . At the conclusion of the event, the participants pledged to reduce their carbon footprint by a quarter, by adopting changes to their lifestyles.