The Director of Qatar Green Building Council, Eng Meshal Al Shamari (fifth left), with officials of the sponsoring companies of Qatar Sustainability Week 2019, addressing a press briefing at the Msheireb Museums’ Bin Jelmood House in Doha, yesterday. Als
With an expected participation of ‘around 40,000 individuals and entities’, Qatar Sustainability Week 2019 starting from October 26 will create mass awareness on eco-friendly practices with the help of over 200 activities.
Qatar Green Building Council (QGBC), a member of Qatar Foundation (QF), yesterday announced the fourth edition of Qatar Sustainability Week (QSW) 2019.
Held under the patronage of Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, QSW 2019 will run from October 26 to November 2, 2019, and will serve as a unique platform to promote the nation’s sustainability vision with relevant stakeholders.
The ‘all inclusive’ awareness campaign this year will be revolving around ‘action, engagement’ theme. Talking to The Peninsula, Engineer Meshal Al Shamari, Director of QGBC, said that QSW 2019 would be marked with the help of many innovative ideas and the participating organizations would organise different eco-friendly activities to raise awareness like no use of plastic bottles, bags.
“One participating hotel will observe no-elevator day. There will be beach cleaning and seabed cleaning activities among many others,” he said.
Al Shamari noted that such campaigns had positive impact on people’s and organization’s attitudes towards sustainability. “When people start practising green habits they ultimately get used to them and organizations also witness some benefits from adopting environmentally-friendly practices.”
The ever increasing number of participants (both individuals and organizations), he said, was the evidence of people’s maturity and interest towards environment related challenges. “First year, as many as 10,000 individuals, organizations participated in the sustainability week while this number swelled to 30, 000 in 2018 and this year we are expecting the participation of 40, 000 plus individuals and organizations in the week-long campaign.”
QSW 2019 is an opportunity for public and private sector stakeholders to showcase their innovative solutions to the environmental challenges facing Qatar and the wider region. It will further highlight the country’s contributions and progress towards the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and the objectives set in Qatar National Vision 2030.
Addressing the press conference, Engineer Meshal Al Shamari, Director, QGBC, said: “As part of the initiative, numerous activities will take place to promote our nation’s progress towards global environmental protection and the realization of our sustainability goals. Advancing this vision needs even the smallest individual contribution and we encourage everyone to both showcase and participate in the diverse activities we have planned over the week.”
During the press conference, QGBC also confirmed the sponsors of this year’s event. Alfardan Group has come on board for the first time as a Diamond Sponsor, while Msheireb Properties joins for the fourth consecutive year as the Platinum Sponsor, and Qatar National Bank is the Gold Sponsor.
Other key sponsors include Tadmur Holding as Awards Sponsor for the fourth annual Qatar Sustainability Awards 2019; Facilities Management and Maintenance Company (FMM) and Jotun Paints are the Conference Sponsor; Ateliers Artea is Lifestyle Sponsor; Elite Paper Recycling is Industry Sponsor; and Contactless is Technology Sponsor.
Throughout the week, sponsors and partners will present more than 200 events that offer the public the opportunity to be part of the sustainability-oriented efforts. Al Wakra Municipality, in collaboration with QGBC, will launch the ‘Green Home Guide’ in Al Wakrah.
Other activities include ‘Future Vision – Botanical Art Exhibition’; beach cleaning activities; recycling, paperless, and water/energy saving campaigns; awareness initiatives; and numerous technical talks; while QF food outlets will not issue plastic bags.
QGBC will hold an appreciation event in mid November to showcase all the activities that took part during the week and to thank all the sponsors partners for their participation.
