Co-founders Lulwa Bin Mahfooz and Ranna Jan along with Mohammad Al-Homsi engage in talks with business leaders of the Saudi environmental sector

GREENation participated in the first ever Stakeholder Meeting to be held in Saudi Arabia under the rules of the Kyoto Protocol. This meeting marked the first application by a Saudi project for registration and eventual permission to trade Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) — also known as carbon credits — under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol. The meeting is a prerequisite part of the complex process for registration by the UN that will allow trading.

Lulwa Bin Mahfooz, Ranna Jan, Mohammad Al-Homssi, and Aya Naghi assisted and gave an overview of GREENation’s activities, which include a number of initiatives and lectures aimed at raising the Saudi public’s awareness with regards to environmental conservation.

With the recent announcement regarding the establishment of the King Abdullah Nuclear and Renewable Energy City, the Kingdom has put its citizens and the world on notice that Saudi Arabia is serious about reducing its domestic fossil fuel consumption, which is growing at 8% per annum and already consuming about 20% of the Kingdom’s oil production.

Rachad Itani, Xenel-Balderrie’s CEO, who conducted the stakeholder meeting had this to say about GREENation channeling the energy and efforts of youth amongst Saudi Arabia towards the green movement, “No amount of business development or government led initiatives can make a difference to a nation’s Future without the full participation and dedication of its youth. I did write Future –and not future– to make a point, as the two are often confused by officials and citizens alike.”

Members of the GREENation management team (from left to right) Lulwa Bin Mahfooz, Ranna Jan, Aya Naghi, and Mohammad Al-Homsi

Our first year of operations in Jeddah was terrific. The community proved to be as passionate about the environment as we were and eager to get the green movement going.  The positive feedback we received, though, wasn’t limited to Jeddah’s inhabitants. Words of praise came in from all corners of the Kingdom and the world – The work we do is collective in its nature so we’d like to thank each and every single one of you for your ongoing support. A student from Alfaisal University, Ali Rahmatullah, who is now the head of our division based in Riyadh, picked up on our initiative and volunteered to spearhead Green Jeddah’s work in capital. We then realized that it was time for us to expand our operations to include not only Jeddah but Saudi Arabia as a whole and so came the resurrection of our social enterprise as GREENation, Saudi Arabia’s first youth-driven eco-friendly initiative.

Today, GREENation’s managing network consists of students from Dar Al-Hekma College, Effat University, College of Business Administration (CBA), Ibn Sina National College, and Alfaisal University. If you’d like to represent your educational institution (be it school, college, or university) feel free to e-mail us at greenjeddah@gmail.com with your contact information and we’ll get in touch with you on that matter.

Oh and for those keeping track, our website is temporarily down for a little touching up – we will notify you upon its re-release.

What are your thoughts? Yay or Nay? Saudi Arabia is definitely on the look-out for environmental solutions – and growing health concerns spurred by landfills happen to be on the top of the list. The KKC has high hopes; with the Kingdom going through an era of hefty industrialization, our environment should be of concern. We’ll keep you posted with the latest from the KAUST Kompost Cooperation, in the meantime, feel free to voice your thoughts and opinions.

After assembling our first working prototype, earth day was a great opportunity for our team to introduce the community to the idea of composting, explain the process, and gain momentum for the project as we continue prototyping and assessing user needs. Composting at this level is only a baby step, but its eye opening for most of the people that we speak to.  – Eric Martin, KAUST Kompost Cooperation (KKC)

From left to right - Eric Martin, Anas Al-Qasimi, Abubakr Sayed

Amidst all the fun was the heart of the celebration -  a grand display of artwork made out of recycled material. We walked around in awe looking at these human-height “statues” of what would have otherwise been discarded as trash. Students from both KAUST and the King Abdulaziz University took part in the recyclable artwork contest – check out a few pieces here:

Green Jeddah’s approach to environmental preservation is indeed a collective one; this is our planet, our home, as much as it is yours – it is up to you to make it a better place for yourself and the generations to come. We had the pleasure of meeting a family from Abha at yesterday’s Earth Hour and shedding light on the importance of recycling.

We are so proud of all of you. I cannot wait to come back again, same time next year, and take part in Earth Hour. Keep up the fantastic work! – Resident of Abha

A high school student from Dar Alfikr went on to tell us about how she was working on a project with solar ovens while her colleague informed us all of an ongoing eco-friendly campaign she’s been working on. Simultaneously, a couple of other people went on an hour walk on the seashore in honor of the cause.

Until next year’s Earth Hour – do make sure that you are preserving our depleting natural resources. Save water, turn off the lights…RECYCLE. You can make all the difference!

(from left to right) Menal Nour Hussen, Rana Jan, Alaa Al-Mizyen, Lulwa BinMahfooz

Desalination plants and solutions for sustainable living within Saudi Arabia were just highlights of the KAUST presentations headed by Professor Alice Agogino today.  Green Jeddah’s co-founders had the chance to meet with several of the mechanical engineers and environmental scientists behind the conceptualizations.

Ms. Lina Jamjoom, Dr. Shamim Khan, and Ms. Maimuna Sultana, of Dar Al-Hekma College, also gave some insight on the black cloud project and its results as per the study executed at the Dar Al-Hekma campus.

For more information on the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology check out: http://www.kaust.edu.sa/

Nursery and Kindergarten students between the ages of 3 and 6 joined Green Jeddah in an action-packed morning of eco-friendliness.  Between learning about endangered species and planting flowers, the Ambassadors Schools’ toddlers really proved themselves to be our planet’s heroes. Giggles and squeals of delight filled the air while, one by one, our new friends helped us beat the odds during Green Jeddah’s 1st Recycling Rally! We all practiced separating our recyclables: cans with cans, plastic with plastics, and paper with paper.

The Ambassadors Schools - Jeddah, KSA

The students learned how to identify the reduce, reuse, recycle sign (yes, the three arrows), how to help save their favorite endangered species, and what they can do to make mother earth smile:

• Turn off the tap water while brushing our teeth
• Turn off the lights when we’re not using them to see
• Don’t waste paper – use both sides to draw and write.

Saudi Arabia’s young are now officially part of the green movement.

If you’d like Green Jeddah to organize awareness events, campaigns, or lectures at your institution feel free to contact us on

greenjeddah@gmail.com

...and so the Green Jeddah recycling rally commences

the kids are in line with their teams for the rally

All the recyclables are sorted - mission accomplished!

Yep, ladies and gentlemen set your alarms to 8:30 PM on March 27th because that will mark Saudi Arabia’s first ever Earth Hour! Organized and kicked off by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in 2007, Earth Hour has become an  annual event, celebrated on the last Saturday of March, globally, with approximately 92 countries participating a week from today.

What is Earth Hour exactly? It’s an hour dedicated to our planet. No community clean-ups. No recycling rallies. Just an hour of darkness. All you have to do is turn off your lights from 8:30-9:30 PM on the evening of March 27th. Get together with some friends and family and celebrate Earth Hour together – do your part in raising awareness on environmental preservation, after all, this is your home.

What’s a mere hour of darkness going to do for the planet? Records have shown that power consumption during Earth Hour in cities such as Dubai and Bangkok have gone down by 2-13%. But its about a whole lot more than stats, Earth Hour celebrates your voice along with millions of others around the globe, in support of our planet. How big is it? Let’s just say that places such as the Sydney Opera House, Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the Pyramids in Cairo, and the Empire State Building in New York are among the buildings participating in Earth Hour this year. Several governmental buildings and private companies are going dark in Jeddah, Riyadh, and Dammam. Earth Hour 2010 – take part in the world’s biggest climate awareness campaign ever!

For more information: www.earthhour.org/

Our initial reaction after our first ever Green Jeddah presentation at Babson College...which was our same reaction once Green Jeddah was announced the 1st place winner at the US-Saudi Women's Forum on Social Entrepreneurship at Dar Al-Hekma College held under the patronage of HH Princess Sit Bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud

It was an award well deserved for all of them, but Green Jeddah was fantastic — not only one segment would benefit from it, unlike the other projects, but the whole society. In fact, the whole world would benefit from it. They easily earned the first place, said Nadia Baeshen, one of the judges of this event.

Check out the complete article on the following link:
http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article25641.ece