1st Assignment: Sustainability Project Lourdes Beltrán Linares. Melissa Marengo Serrano. The Pontifical Catholic University of Perú (PUCP) has taken an initiative to show, inform and aware the University about the impacts of weather change in Peru and in the world, this initiative has been canalised trough Climate of Change, initiative that has been established on the year 2008 and it is constitute by different units inside the campus dedicated to research and development of environmental friendly projects (among other purposes) such as: The Architecture and the City Research Center (initials in Spanish CIAC), the Center for Research on Sociological, Economic, Politics and Anthropology (CISEPA), the Academic Direction of Social Responsibility (DARS), The Support Group of the Rural Sector (GRUPO), the Environmental Studies Institute (IDEA) and the Peruvian Network of Life Cycle (RPCV). In the Essay hereby, we have chosen a sustainability project developed by the DARS that has been put in practice since 2008 related with the administration of the solid waste generated inside the campus. The first issue they come across was that the University produces daily 3,784 kilograms of solid waste and the University has found a way to make from these waste something positive that wont harm the environment, for these, our University has put in practice a project to segregate and recycled the waste in the campus, having two main goals in mind: a recycling process that would be environmental friendly and a social responsibility labor by helping different institutions or organizations (goal that we will describe in the following pages). The first task was to aware the University community about the consequences of global warming and the need to do something to change the future repercussions and that one of the things that we as students could do was to segregate the waste in the way that it is indicated by the trash cans, this is the second task. The awareness process has been accomplished through several campaigns like posters (that have been handed out not only in campus but also in schools, companies and grocery stores), the University’s newspaper, informative stands in different fairs, recycling contests between faculties and others, made with the help of Climate of Change. Once the awareness process was put in practice, the second one was to fit out on the campus different garbage cans that would classify the waste in organic waste, paper waste and plastic waste. Once the solid waste it’s segregated, our University chooses an Institution to donate the recycled waste that can be sold in the market and in this way the institution that gets the donation can get funds. In this particular case, in 2008, as part of celebrations for World Environment Day, the University signed a cooperation agreement with FUNDADES in this agreement the University donates the paper that has been segregated in the Containers that were placed in the Faculty of Science and Engineering, General Studies and CEPREPUC, to the Foundation for Solidarity Development (FUNDADES), a foundation dedicated to promote
and to carry out activities and projects directed to improve the quality of life from the population with fewer resources, FUNDADES has sold the paper waste to a recycling company. FUNDADES has used the money to help children without economical resources to finance their studies. From January until May of this year it has been segregated from the campus approximately 3 tons of paper and this donation have generated 5 school scholarships. The same project it is been prepared to donate the waste of plastic bottles from campus that will be donated to a Public School that need the money to finance the construction of their court yard. One of the reasons to donate, until know, only paper and plastic waste it is because in Peru there are not companies dedicated to recycled organic waste or battery waste and the environmental regulations for these are still in develop and this is one of the reasons why we need to do something to change this reality in a way that there will be more tools and mechanisms to recycled and prevent that pollutions and global warming continues. Since the year 2008 the distribution of the recycling bins has improved. On the other hand, the University not only contributes to the care of the environment, but also supports various social causes through educational programs that FUNDADES supports; this institution has implemented preschool workshops in districts of the capital city as Comas, Villa El Salvador and La Molina. They have also installed special bins for disposing of used batteries. These are located in the faculties of Electronic Engineering, Mining Engineering, and Science ahead of the Central Library. It is essential that these deposits are used because the content of a battery is highly toxic, it contains substances such as mercury, cadmium, lithium and lead that are harmful to health and the environment. Everybody should keep in mind that a single battery can contaminate 167,000 liters of water. In conclusion, although this initiative has been implemented in recent years, the University community has responded positively to the incentives and information that has been provided, generating a culture of recycling that seeks to spread outside of the University. This is because the Climate of Change management is aimed at implementing sustainable long-term projects. It should be recognized that our university is the first one in Peru to design an Institutional Plan that aims to achieve a performance that does not undermine the planet. Finally, we consider this Sustainability Project is a clear proposal that can be easily adopted by other universities worldwide, and is particularly beneficial because it has an added value since it is not only based on environmental purposes, but also on social purposes.
Posters: distribute in schools, universities, companies and others