The Environmental Sustainability Leadership Award winner, presented for the third time this year by our university, has been announced. Halil İbrahim Şarlı, a first-year student in the Turkish Language and Literature Department, has been awarded the Award.
The award ceremony was held online on our university’s Instagram channel, moderated by Dr. Fatma Aykanat, Chair of the Sustainability Commission at Kapadokya University. Sharing his experiences and sensitivity towards the environment, Halil İbrahim Şarlı stated that the natural and cultural beauty of Mustafapaşa motivated him to work on environmental sustainability. Şarlı said, “I thought about what I could do to pass these natural and cultural beauties on to future generations. When we look at Ürgüp as a whole, we see that it is a place that hosts tourism and natural beauty. I saw my efforts and the work I put in for the beauty nature has provided us as a debt of gratitude, and I started participating in events. I joined tree-planting activities with TEMA, participated in environmental clean-up events, and participated in lavender planting activities in the Manastır Valley. My goal was to contribute to nature in some way and leave a better world for future generations. These were the things that motivated me the most during this process.”
Some of the activities that led to Halil İbrahim Şarlı winning the Environmental Sustainability Leadership Award include:
- Cappadocia Cultural Trips – Ihlara Valley
- National Afforestation Day on November 11
- Kızılçukur Valley Hike with the Nature Club on World Walking Day
- Disaster Awareness Training
- The White Continent Antarctica and Its Terrestrial Vegetation
- World Soil Day ‘Göllü Dağ’ Hike
- Lavenders Meet the Soil
- Zemi Valley Environmental Clean-Up Event
- Bicycle Days: ‘Don’t Stay Still’
- Have a Planted Tree (TEMA)
- Participation in the 2022 Mother Earth Day and Local Products Week Event
Aykanat: As a university, we greatly emphasize raising individuals with ecological awareness and sensitivity towards nature.
Explaining the criteria for winning the Environmental Sustainability Leadership Award, Dr. Fatma Aykanat, Chair of the University’s Sustainability Commission, stated that the requirements include participating in environmental sustainability activities within the university, designing projects and/or conducting academic studies on environmental sustainability, and organizing awareness-raising activities and/or projects to increase ecological sensitivity and awareness. Aykanat also mentioned the work that needs to be done outside the university for environmental sustainability, such as participating in the activities of non-governmental organizations focused on sustainability and ecological sensitivity and designing events and projects to improve environmental sustainability and ecological awareness. Aykanat said, “As a university, we place great importance on raising individuals with ecological awareness and sensitivity towards nature. We achieve this through mandatory and elective courses on environmental sustainability added to our curriculum and through extracurricular activities we organize.”
What is the Environmental Sustainability Leadership Award?
It is an award given by our university to students who participate in environmental sustainability activities and carry out awareness-raising activities to improve ecological sensitivity during their education period.
