“Sustainable Campuses” project
Cyprus International University (CIU) organized a workshop titled "Road to Sustainability: From Campuses to the World" in collaboration with UI GreenMetric World University Rankings organization that evaluates sustainability in institutions of higher education. Faculty members and students from the Faculty of Engineering, the Faculty of Fine Arts, Design and Architecture and the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences as well as guests from outside the university attended the event.
Prof. Dr. Serkan Abbasoğlu, chief Advisor of the Board of Trustees and Dean of the Faculty of Engineering organized the workshop led by the Sustainable Campus Center. CIU Rector Prof. Dr. Halil Nadiri speaking at the opening stated their satisfaction in organizing such an important workshop and said, "Our campus is aware of the importance of sustainability and tries to make research activities in this regard a lifestyle." Pointing out that CIU ranked 71st among 1050 campuses in the world in the UI GreenMetric rankings, Nadiri also reminded that CIU ranked 2nd among 85 campuses in Turkey.
Dr. Ruki Haywanyu attended the event on behalf of the UI GreenMetric World University Rankings organization and he talked about the organization's vision and application processes and stated that the works accomplished and the development of CIU were praiseworthy.
In his presentation, Abbasoğlu explained CIU's Sustainability road map and goals, and said that they have been working on sustainability since 2009 and that the process, which started with environmental and energy issues, is now progressing in a much wider array of possibilities.
Stating that they established the Departments of Environmental Engineering and Energy Systems Engineering during the same time period, Abbasoğlu added that they established the Sustainable Energy and Research Center in 2011.
Prof. Dr. Abbasoğlu also noted that they started to invest in this field as a university after establishing their scientific infrastructure, and underlined that they established the island's first private solar energy park in 2014.
Stating that sustainability is achieved by preserving existing natural resources, Abbasoğlu said, “It is important to find alternatives to use less petroleum-based fuels. For this reason, we have made a major investment on solar energy which is one of the main actors of the sustainability struggle on the island."
Abbasoğlu stated that the ST building on the campus is also an energy efficient building and that they started an organization called 'Students for a Sustainable Campus' in 2018 and in this context included students in the works.
Abbasoğlu said the university started cooperation with different organizations and added, " Among these organizations are the Taşkent Nature Park, Nicosia Municipality Animal Shelter and Gönyeli Municipality.”
Abbasoğlu also stated that they opened a sustainability workshop run by students on campus and shared the information: "We also have a Nature Café that uses products produced from recycled materials, and a 'community garden' where students from different cultures plant and do the harvesting themselves."
Pointing out that they are working on many projects at the university, Abbasoğlu said, “We want to increase the participation of our students, the academics and the public. We hope that today’s event from this perspective will be making a splash."