Air Pollution and Public Health: Challenges and Interventions workshop , 2020-02-04

Title : ( Role of Universities in Air Pollution Control: Experience of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad )

Authors: Mohammad Kafi , Seyed Yaser Banihashemi ,

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Abstract

Air is polluted when the concentration of toxic chemicals and nonchemical compounds is above the standard threshold that may cause a health risk for biological systems including human. Therefore, air pollution is one of the major urban environmental problems in many parts of the world including NAM countries. In each big city in the world, there may be one or more higher education institute that are training future managers and leaders of their society, and at the same time they are a part of their society that play a role in air pollution or remediation of air pollution in that city. Mashhad is the second largest city of Iran with more than 3 million citizens. It has a dry climate with only about 250 mm of precipitation annually therefore making green walls and cover plants and trees is difficult and expensive. Mashhad is also known as the city of Ferdowsi, the Iranian poet who composed the Shahnameh, and the largest University in this city named after him \\\"Ferdowsi University of Mashhad\\\". This University is the largest and most prestigious University in the city and the region, with seventy years successful academic performance, 300 ha campus in the heart of the city and 30000 students and staffs. We started to be a green University about 20 years ago, hopping to reduce the impact of environmental problems on the campus and community. Our understanding was to be an educational institution to train future generations to meet their own needs and save natural resources, energy, water, materials and not to add CO2 to the ambient except sequiestrate it as carbihydrate inside the plant and trees biomass. To materialize this aim we estalished an office in the name of Green University office using a team of sustainability professionals. First of all, we stablished seven different commities including, greenery and landscape, green culture, ecucation and research, green business, green infrastructure and equipments, waste management, safty and crisis management and traffic management. We manage land and resources to benefit wildlife and conserve biodiversity but at the same time greenish part of it. In the labs we implemented Habitat Action Plans, minimising chemical use, and conducting regular monitoring surveys. We are encauraging the use of sustainable means of transport to students, staff and visitors, and we\\\'re continually investing in initiatives and facilities to make green travel easier and more attractive .We are trying to promote education for sustainable development, not just in our environmental department, but also in other related departments such as economic and social sciences in their courses and programmes .Interaction with students in green issues is a very important aspect of our work on sustainability: it’s our students\\\' passion and commitment to this subject that drives us to achieve our social and environmental goals. We are preparing and distribuitng more than 20000 portion of food daily for our students, trying to offer well-balanced, healthy and sustainable catering. Our food is procured and produced in ways that avoids damaging the planet, enhances animal welfare and provides social benefits. Finally, our green University team manage environmental initiatives to help us reduce our negative impacts by conserving energy and water, making finite resources last longer, and reducing our contribution to air pollution and climate change and at the same time prepare our citizens to reduce air pollution

Keywords

, Green Universities, Student involement, Staff involvement
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@inproceedings{paperid:1078737,
author = {Kafi, Mohammad and Banihashemi, Seyed Yaser},
title = {Role of Universities in Air Pollution Control: Experience of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad},
booktitle = {Air Pollution and Public Health: Challenges and Interventions workshop},
year = {2020},
location = {دهلی, INDIA},
keywords = {Green Universities; Student involement; Staff involvement},
}

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%0 Conference Proceedings
%T Role of Universities in Air Pollution Control: Experience of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad
%A Kafi, Mohammad
%A Banihashemi, Seyed Yaser
%J Air Pollution and Public Health: Challenges and Interventions workshop
%D 2020

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