By Sihle Nzima
The Durban University of Technology’s Student Housing and ResLife Unit recently held a Green Summit for a Green Campus Initiative (GCI) at E1 Ritson Hall.
The summit was attended by DUT students, students from other institutions of higher institutions, and young entrepreneurs and innovators.
The Green Summit programme aimed to discuss green initiatives and understand ways to promote sustainability.
The GCI seeks to educate students and surrounding communities about the impact of climate change while developing pedagogical approaches to address environmental issues.
The DUT senior residence life officer, Khosi Twala, emphasised the summit’s purpose as a platform for understanding their green initiatives.
“Through this platform, the aim is to get to understand what other institutions are also doing with regard to greening and to pave a way on how we will work (from now onwards).”
She added that this summit’s importance lies in inspiring students to explore green entrepreneurship as a solution to job scarcity.
Twala said: “We are showcasing some green innovation as a way to understand the aspect of entrepreneurship, at the moment there is a scarcity of job creation. These students led
Initiatives are paving the way for entrepreneurship while ensuring that people are starting their own businesses.”
Student GCI chairperson Mbali Ncayiyane said that since joining the initiative, they have accomplished important tasks.
“There is the one called ‘One Residence, One Garden Project’, which addresses the issue of food security among students at DUT. We plant gardens at almost every DUT residence to ensure that none of our students complain about going to bed hungry.
“The GCI has educational programmes and action-based programmes to ensure that students are aware of the climate change issue and environmental sustainability. We also promote urban gardening, using old car tyres to plant gardens on the concrete areas of the residences that have no ground garden,” she said.
Adopt River operations and education manager, Azile Mpukwana, commended the initiative for raising environmental awareness and instilling environmental values among students.
“The GCI is doing an amazing job by changing the mindset of these young people. Unlearning bad habits and learning new eco-friendly ways of living.”
Mpukwana emphasised the significance of using social media platforms to engage the youth and to promote environmental awareness.
“Social media networks will be beneficial because most young people spend most of their time on social media. We should also seek new innovations from young people with young minds.”
Coastal College Students’ Representative Council (SRC) president, who was among the attendees, Msindisi Malunga, said he has gained valuable knowledge about climate change and environmental clean-up methods at the summit.
“At Coastal College, we do not have such initiatives like that of GCI, but after such an informative summit, I will use my influence to initiate such a movement in all our eight campuses. It will start with me. I will lead by example as the (SRC) president.”
