Page 55 - SAMENA Trends - December 2023
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ARTICLE  SAMENA TRENDS


                                                       ARTICLE





        Why Campuses Hold the Key to Accelerating a Net Zero

        Future


        The Net Zero Campus – Achieving Localized Sustainability




        Ever since 2015, when then Deputy Secretary-General of the United
        Nations, Jan Eliasson made the profound statement that “Cities
        are where the battle for sustainable development will be won –
        or lost if we fail.”; a greater focus has been placed on cities as a
        focal point to solve key challenges. To put it into perspective Cities
        only cover 2% of the world’s surface, yet they consume 78% of the
        world’s  energy  and  produce  more  than  60%  of  greenhouse  gas
        emissions . They are also where 80% of global GDP is created.

        Throughout history people of moved to cities, primarily in search
        of three things; security, prosperity and social interaction. So much
        so that not only are the number of cities increasing rapidly, but so
        too is their size. A mega-city is a city with a population greater than
        ten million; it is anticipated that the number of mega-cities across
        the world by 2030 will have grown by four times and will house a
        population five times that of the 1990 level!

           “Cities are where the battle for sustainable
           development  will  be  won  – or lost  if  we
           fail.”


        Why campuses are key
        A  campus  is  a  bitesize  chunk  of  city. Therefore,  addressing  the
        campus  as  a building  block is key to helping  cities  transition
        to a  more  sustainable  future. Cities  tend  to be  developed  or
        redeveloped in phases, often consisting of one or more city blocks,
        especially when sub-developers are involved. Traditionally we may
        have thought of a university, college or school, when talking about
        a campus. However, a campus could be any chunk of a city ranging   Safder Nazir
        from  a  single  large  development  to  a  whole  district.  A  defining   Senior VP of Public Sector
        characteristic  being  the  operational  management  and  control   Huawei, Middle East & Central Asia
        of the area coming under a single administration. Therefore, we
        could  understand  a  shopping  mall,  factory  or  even  a  mixed-use
        development as a campus.















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