EPAA honored the winners of the 6th round of Sharjah Sustainability Award (SSA) for the category of schools and universities in a large ceremony held yesterday, Thursday, at Al Qassimia University Theater. Winners and members of the jury were honored in the presence of Marwan Ahmed Al-Sawaleh, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education for Academic Affairs, HE Hana Saif Al Suwaidi, EPAA Chairman, members of the jury and SSA participants, environmentalists and specialists, and others..

EPAA announced the names of the winners for the category of schools. New Indian Model School (NIMS) won the Outstanding School Award in the field of electricity and water rationalization. Two teams of female students from Al Najah Primary School in Ras Al Khaimah and Asmaa bint Amis School in Ajman, won the Outstanding Team Award. In the domain of sustainable environmental application project, Al Shola Private School from Sharjah, won the Outstanding Coordinator Award. Al Khalil Bin Ahmed Secondary School from Sharjah won the Outstanding Team Award after creating a device that produces fuel from plastic recycling, which provides an environmental solution to conserve energy sources.

In the domain of designing environmental, education and awareness models on the preservation of wildlife and its biodiversity, Abdullah bin Nasser Primary School from Sharjah and Al Kidwa Primary School from Sharjah won the Outstanding School Award. Sharjah Indian School won the Outstanding Team Award. In the domain of photography, Rawan Abdel Latif from Al Nof Primary School in Sharjah and Shamsa Ali Obaid Al Naqbi from Al Hijra Primary School in Sharjah won the Outstanding Student Award.

In the domain of short environmental movie, a team of female students from Al Hijra Primary School won the Outstanding Team Award for their excellence in the idea of the movie they presented in terms of the novelty of the idea and the attraction and excitement elements on the importance and role of EPAA's Desert Park Centres in spreading a culture of awareness of the importance of conserving biodiversity in wildlife environments. The Green School Award went to Falaj Al Moalla Primary and Secondary School in Umm Al Quwain, which stood out for implementing sustainable environmental projects to achieve sustainability and conservation of its natural resources.

EPAA also announced the names of the winning universities. The students group of the University of Sharjah won the Outstanding Team Award in the domain of evaluation scientific research for their research on the use of Activated Crumb Rubber as a sustainable road asphalt mixture. In the domain of applied scientific research, Abdul Sabour Karzad from the University of Sharjah won the Outstanding Student Award for his research on fibre-reinforced polymer as a sustainable repair and reinforcement of reinforced concrete technology.

The team of students of the American University of Sharjah won the Outstanding Team Award for their research on Ion Transmission Fluid Filter: Converting Palm Dates to Valuable Products, in addition to the team of students of the University of Sharjah for their research on green building. In the domain of short environmental movie, the team of female students of Al Qasimia University won the Outstanding Team Award for their environmental, education and awareness movie on the importance of protecting wild birds from poaching. The University of Sharjah won the Green College Award for its implementation of sustainability in different and diverse aspects in its campus.

56 schools competing over 11 awards have participated in the award, in addition to a number of universities, namely: the American University of Sharjah, University of Sharjah, Al Qasimia University and Skyline University College (SUC). The Green School category has been introduced for the school category of the Award. For the university category, Green College has been introduced in the sixth round.

HE Hana Saif Al Suwaidi said, “Sharjah Sustainability Award initiative has a national and educational value and is a catalyst for the spirit of positive and distinctive competition among different student sectors in schools and universities to contribute to conducting helpful scientific research on the environment and to create and deliver innovative environmental projects in the areas related to the conservation of natural environment resources in order to serve and improve our environment to achieve a green environment within a sustainable framework.”

The SSA jury evaluated the participating projects. The evaluation mechanism included two stages: the initial stage which included evaluation of the project descriptive file based on the terms and conditions of the descriptive file and the conditions and criteria of the domain of participation. In this stage, the projects eligible for final arbitration were nominated. The second stage was the final arbitration, which included the arbitration of the projects nominated according to the SSA criteria for the domain of the participating project.

The members of the jury praised the submitted projects, both the winning and the losing, as the competition was quite tough, and the submitted projects were important and outstanding. They also praised the role and status of SSA, which is one of the important and pioneering environmental initiatives aiming at developing awareness and consolidating the principles of sustainable development through concerted efforts and joint action that will contribute to the achievement of green development goals and building a bright future. They pointed out that SSA has contributed to the refinement of the talents of students and participants, the discovery of talents and innovations, the development of awareness and the consolidation of environmental development concepts.