With countless interactive activities, AKU's campuses in four countries pulsed with energy to celebrate World Environment Day 2025. With this year's theme 'Beat Plastic Pollution' as designated by the United Nations Environment Programme, the day offers not only a celebration, but a moment of collective reckoning and renewal.
Plastics are ubiquitous in everyday life, but sadly also in every corner of the planet from soils to air to the deepest oceans. Every single piece of plastic ever produced still exists, and the quantity is growing exponentially.
The AKDN Environment and Climate Commitment includes a goal to “Reducing environmental toxins and pollution, including single-use plastics". AKU has over the last years made great strides in reducing plastics from many areas including food services and pharmacy, but also medical practice.
A global webinar was the first activity for this year's World Environment Day celebrations at AKU, hosted in collaboration with IPS, an AKDN agency. With experts from research and recycling, and from design to healthcare, a multitude of actionable ideas was shared to reduce plastics use and pollution.
Employees and students in Nairobi had the opportunity to engage with 14 different vendors in a unique sustainable market at the University Centre, with products ranging from household goods, decorative items, to gardening inputs and wellness products. This well-visited event showcased that there are more eco-friendly alternatives to everyday products that neither take unnecessary resources from the planet nor leave unnecessary pollution.
In Karachi, hundreds of participants from across the University participated in an interactive waste-to-art project. This collaboration with the Indus Valley of Art and Architecture offered an opportunity for reflection on how we produce, manage, and reduce waste. The sculpture unveiling on World Environment Day was followed by a market showcase with numerous vendors of upcycled or organic items from the city.
Students at AKU's Salama House in Dar es Salaam enjoyed a Plastic Arts Competition, which inspired to see waste as a resource that can be transformed and upcycled. This was received with large response, alongside a pledge wall to encourage everyone to make a pledge on how to beat plastic pollution in their professional roles or personal lives.
In Arusha behind AKU's Community Outreach Centre, all teams came together to establish a second microforest to support research on biodiversity, plant growth, soil composition and carbon sequestration. This comes exactly after one year of the first microforest at Arusha being planted last year on World Environment Day under the theme 'Generation Restoration'. Both microforests include 25 diverse species of indigenous trees.
At AKU in Kampala, the Student Affairs team set up a large pledge board where dozens of students, faculty and staff were able not only to pledge an action but also be inspired by the many ideas that were generated to #BeatPlasticPollution.
Read more about AKU's commitments and progress on environment and sustainability here.
