Centre for Science and Environment organized workshop on environment awareness at GNDU
Gurpreet kaur/ royalpatiala.in/ Amritsar
The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) – a New Delhi based environment policy, advocacy and research organization – organized a two-day workshop titled ‘Mainstreaming Sustainability in Curricula of the Built Environment Courses’ at the Guru Nanak Dev University. The workshop was organized to commemorate the 550th Birth Anniversary of Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji and the Golden Jubilee centenary year of Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.
The workshop was chaired by Professor Sarabjot Singh Behl, Dean Academic Affairs. He expressed his pleasure on successful completion of the three-year MoU between GNDU and CSE. He highlighted that response to these workshops conducted by CSE has been tremendous, the impact of which can be seen in terms of awareness to the environment, knowledge and initiation among faculty and students. Teaching methods have seen improvement. He informed the participants of the workshop that sensitization on sustainability aspects, as discussed in various training programmes of CSE, has resulted in establishment of Centre for Sustainable Habitat under the RUSA grant. He proceeded with the announcements that GNDU is buying 10 Lithium battery-operated 18-24 seater buses, which will be made available to hostels for the benefit of the students; the toilets are being revamped with water efficient fixtures to promote water conservation in the campus; plumbing work will be changed as well to be able to reuse treated wastewater from the sewage treatment plant at the campus. Dr. Behl expressed intent for support from CSE in conducting joint research projects.
While sharing a recap of the seven training programmes organized by CSE, Dr. Ashwani Luthra, Professor, Guru Ramdas School of Planning presented the snapshots of the events held on GNDU campus and NIMLI campus of CSE at Alwar. He said that the faculty and the students of Planning and Architecture Departments of the University have gained a lot from the trainings conducted on various aspects of sustainable development. He informed the participants that the joint efforts of the GNDU and CSE have resulted in establishment of a Centre for Sustainable Habitat at GNDU to provide resource for research on sustainability. He also informed that two projects titled ‘Energy Efficient Buildings’ and ‘Quality of life in Smart Cities’ have been initiated by the Centre to give practical shape to the learnings of the training programmes.
Prof. (Dr.) Karamjit Singh Chahal, former Dean of Faculty of Physical Planning and Architecture expressed his gratitude to CSE for knowledge exchange and technical support for improving the academic syllabi for architecture and planning courses at GNDU. Prof. (Dr.) Sandeep Dua, Dean of Faculty of Physical Planning and Architecture thanked Sareen for imparting excellent knowledge and sharing research based reading material on various aspects of sustainability. Respective former and current Heads of the Department of Architecture and Guru Ramdas School of Planning shared that this collaboration has left an impact in many ways. MRanbir Kaursaid that this collaboration has enabled the Architecture Department to launch a Masters course on Sustainable Habitat and update the curricula for both B.Arch and M.Arch courses based on the learnings from the workshops. Kuldip Singh also thanked Sareen and his team for conducting excellent training programmes on different aspects of planned development of the cities.
Rajneesh Sareen expressed his gratitude to the worthy Vice Chancellor, Dean Academic Affairs, Deans and Heads of Planning and Architecture Departments for giving a fantastic platform to share the research of CSE. He shared that during these three years 600-700 candidates have been trained on different aspects concerning water, energy, built habitat, affordable housing, environment impact assessment, mobility issues, socio-economic dimensions, legislative, policy and other interventions in sustainable planning and design set ups in the urban settlements.
Students shared their experience that this engagement between GNDU and CSE has enabled changes even in their day-today life. They have increased sensitivity towards water conservation, solid waste composting, plastic recycling and several planning and design practices that they are confident to apply in their course projects.The workshop saw participation from about 175 faculty and students of Planning and Architecture courses. Presentations on different topics were made by Sugeet Grover, Programme Officer, Mitashi Singh, Programme Officer, and Varnika Upmanyu, Research Associate, CSE. The workshop ended with vote of thanks proposed by Ritu Raj, Assistant Professor, Guru Ramdas School of Planning
