This week, the NYU Abu Dhabi community celebrated Go Green Week. Go Green Week occurs once a semester and includes various activities, workshops and events with the intention of spreading awareness about sustainability on campus. The events ranged from tours of waste management facilities on campus and sustainability themed Dean’s Majlis, to screenings of movies that focused on environmental issues and events designed to appreciate nature in Abu Dhabi, such as kayaking and walking tours through the Jubail Mangrove Park.

During the opening ceremony for the week, Vice Chancellor Mariët Westermann announced a new administration position on campus — Director of Sustainability and Stewardship. The newly created position will “play an instrumental role in the development and implementation of a comprehensive road map for NYUAD and will focus on carbon, energy, water, construction and renovation, waste, transportation, engagement, research and academic excellence in the field of sustainability,” according to the posting.

The week was an opportunity for many of the sustainability related Student Interest Groups to educate the student body and host events relating to the points of focus of their groups. Veggie Might, a SIG dedicated to supporting plant-based diets on campus, held Veg n’ Pledge, which lasted for the duration of the week. The aim of the event was to allow for “people who want to try being vegan, vegetarian or pescetarian [to be] partnered with someone who is vegan, vegetarian or pescetarian and can kind of help them through the process of adopting that [diet] and guide them through the process of eating on campus,” said the President of Veggie Might, Hannah Greene, Class of 2022.

When advising students who may be considering a plant-based diet, Greene recommended students to “start gradually, but educate yourself. I think it's so easy to eat meat because we are very ignorant of what it means. If people knew what they were eating, they would not eat it, so I would recommend educating yourself, and then it becomes something that's not even hard to stick with ... once you educate yourself enough to know the impacts of your choices.”

Ecoherence, Greenhouse, Veggie Might and the Student Government Sustainability Committee hosted SustainabiliTEA on Tuesday night outside the East Dining Hall. The aim of the event was to start a dialogue concerning issues relating to sustainability on campus.

“We don't want to make sustainability something that's feared or hated by the community, we want to make it a more acceptable thing, so we’re very willing to hear feedback from the community,” said Raunak Shrestha, Class of 2020 and Chair of the Student Government Sustainability Committee.

Another event that Greene helped organize was the Swap Shop. Swap Shop allows students to exchange their used clothes for other student’s clothes.

“The environmental impacts of the clothing industry are highly detrimental. There's so much damage ... and that's a way we can easily change [on campus] by bringing another option that's not a trash can or buying new clothes,” said Greene on the importance of the event on campus.

When asked how students could work on their overall awareness of sustainability, Shrestha’s reply was simple. “Getting involved with the [SIGs], even occasionally popping up in the meetings will allow you to learn a lot in terms of what’s happening on campus … there has to be some sort of awareness from the students, so what the students can do is [attend] the meetings and be aware of what is happening on campus.”