Preamble

The International Relations Office (InRO) of the University of Peradeniya has organized an ‘International Week 2022’ with an aim of introducing international funding opportunities to the University community, promoting research collaborations with international organizations and strengthening the existing collaborations. Enhancing relationships with reputed international organizations would increase the visibility of University of Peradeniya. This is crucially important to the University at this level to enhance its rank of the GreenMetrics.

In 2021, University of Peradeniya was ranked first GreenMetric World University Rankings among all the Universities of Sri Lanka, and became to 213^th place at global level. GreenMetric World University Rankings measure is an indicator of sustainability effort of participating universities which eventually increase the visibility of Universities. For that, the universities are evaluated based on six categories (infrastructure and setting, water, waste, energy and climate change, transportation and education and research). Especially, under the category ‘Education and research’, Universities are expected to organize community service projects and involvement of university students in such activities, where possible. The community service programs can be related to (1) climate change risks, impacts, mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction, and early warning; (2) waste management; (3) access to clean water and (4) education and research. All these activities are in line with the UN sustainable development goals, and undoubtedly it will enhance the GreenMetrics score and the international recognition of the University.

Therefore, during this international week, several activities will be dedicated to offer awareness programs for school children and for local communities on the theme ‘Environmental Sustainability’ through the participation of university students. Thus, we have planned to conduct two major programs. In the program 1, we are targeting to bring 130 school children and teachers to the premises of University of Peradeniya on 23.10.2022 and provide activity based educational sessions on clean water, waste management and biodiversity. The educational programs are separately organized under two categories, students from year 1 to year 7 (Category I) and from year 8 to year 13 (Category II). This event will also be coupled with the distribution of gifts and certificates among winners of a formerly held school ‘arts competition’ themed ‘We are one world. Let us protect it’ which has organized by the Environmental Management Committee of the Faculty of Science and CES. The winners of the arts competitions will be awarded with a live tree seedling to plant in their home garden/school together with some small gifts. Similarly, certificates will be distributed to winners of the poster competition that held by the Environmental Management Committee of the Faculty of Arts and CES, on the theme on ‘Greener University’. They will also be gifted with a tree seedling at this occasion.

In the program 2, we have planned to aware the peripheral communities that live around the University on management of garbage disposal. Each house holds are visited by groups of students, distribute a leaflet and a reusable bag and aware them about minimizing the use of polythene, composting and garbage disposal. We are targeted to involve 50-60 students of the university societies (e.g. Zoological Society, Environmental Society etc.) for this task. However, before that, all the voluntary students are enlightened with conducting awareness programs and composting and proper ways of garbage disposal by university academics.

Thus, during this international week, CES will take part in showcasing the commitment of University of Peradeniya for environmental sustainability while inculcating conservation attitudes in younger generation. Thus, the activities targeted to perform in collaboration with INRO will show the involvement of University of Peradeniya to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals; 2: Zero hunger (No hunger), 3: Good health and well-being, 4: Quality education, 5: Gender equality, 6: Clean water and sanitation, 11: Sustainable cities and communities, 14: Life below water, 15: Life on land, 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions and 17: Partnership for the goals, and there by enhance the score of Green Metric ranking and the international recognition to our University.

Programme 01

Educational Session on “Clean Water, Waste Management and Biodiversity”
Date: 23.10.2022
8.15 - 9.00 a.m.	Documentary video on ‘Rich biodiversity of Sri Lanka’
9.00 – 10.00 a.m.	Inaugural session and distribution of certificates to winners of the art competition on ‘We are one world, Let us protect it’ and the poster competition on ‘Greener University’
10.00 – 10.30 a.m.	Refreshments & Display of posters and arts of winners
	for the students in the Category I	for the students in the Category II
10.30 – 11.15 a.m.	Activity based environmental awareness program Theme: “Improve your Landscape Painting Skills” Moderators: Prof. Sudarshana Bandara & Ms. Manusha Jayasinghe, Department of Fine Arts, University of Peradeniya	Seminar I: ‘Clean water for ever’ Speaker: Prof. Shameen Jinadasa, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Peradeniya
11.15 a.m. – 12.15 p.m.	Theme: ‘This is our environment. We will protect it.’ Moderators: Dr J.W. Damanupola & Mr. Saumya Bandara, Department of Botany, University of Peradeniya	Visit to JDRC Water Testing Laboratories Moderator: Dr. S.K. Weragoda,, JRDC, National Water Supply and Drainage Board
12.15 – 1.15 p.m.	Lunch	Visit to the Meewathura Water Purification Centre Moderator: Dr. S.K. Weragoda,, JRDC, National Water Supply and Drainage Board
1.15 – 2.00 p.m.	Summing up session and distribution of plants	Lunch
2.00 – 2.45 p.m.		Seminar II: ‘Is waste a real problem?’ Speaker: Dr Anuruddha Karunarathne, Department of Agriculture Engineering, University of Peradeniya.
2.45 – 3.00 p.m.		Summing up session and distribution of plants

Programme 02

Community Outreach Activity on “Household Waste Management for Achieving Circular Economy”
Date: November 18, 2022
9:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon	Trainer Training program on ‘household waste management’ Resource person: Dr. Anruddha Karunarathne, Department of Agriculture Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya. Duration: 3 hours Target group: Undergraduate students (50)
Date: November 20, 2022 (Sunday)
9:00 am – 5:00 p.m.	Awareness Raising for household waste management Target group: Neighboring community of the University of Peradeniya Duration: 8 hours Conducted by trained undergraduate students