Welcome Back Faculty, Employees, and Students

Salams All,

Effat's environmental organization, Faseelah(فَسِيلَةُ) is recruiting new members from the Effat community (including faculty and employees).

Learn more about our Islamically driven aspirations, and apply by clicking here if you're a student. If you're not a student and don't have the effat.edu.sa email, click here.


Goals and How You Can Help

Affiliates
Anyone who has taken part in an environmental group knows how hard it is to find other groups. One goal of ours is to keep connecting them to make a real difference in Jeddah. We have officially made deals with some to stay in touch and use each other's resources.
We need members to keep track of them.

Making Effat Eco-friendly
"Green" universities are becoming mandatory! The educated community is realizing more and more how important it is to conserve Earth, including Harvard and Yale, among so many others. It's even becoming something people look for while applying to universities.

And it's so easy to make Effat more eco-friendly than it is! Here are some objectives we're aiming for (it's a lot harder than it sounds). We want to get:

• Awareness movies to be played regularly


• Effat to use paper cups at the coolers instead of plastic


• A recycling system implemented permanently


• The Effat community to stop littering


• The lights and projectors off when they're not used


• Computers and lights to be turned off automatically at the end of the day (they sometimes stay on overnight for no reason)


• The restaurant to pack up food in a more eco-friendly way (no plastic!)


• Energy efficient lighting all around campus

Spreading Awareness
It's so important and easy to respect what Allah has given us, but most of us just don't know. We want to spread the word on:

• How destructive littering is


• The importance of using reusable and reused products, like bottles and bags


• How the majors available can help the planet when our students graduate


• What environmental organizations there already are


• What people are already doing in Jeddah


• What the world is doing to become sustainable


• The perks of vegetarianism


• How the Saudi government is encouraging renewable power, water conservation, and sustainability

Celebrating International Events
This year we hope to bring awareness to international efforts concerning the environment.

• International Mountain Day (December)


• World Water Day (March)


• Earth Day (April)


• International Day for Biological Diversity (May)


• World Environment Day (June)

Green Your Searches II: Ecosia

Much earlier, we posted search engines that were made to be eco-friendly. A search engine is a website that helps you search for anything on the Internet, like Google.

We mentioned how Blackle by Heap Media saves energy by having a black background because it takes less energy to show the color black. Unfortunately, the energy-saving power of Blackle only applies to CRT screens (those older monitors with the really big box in the back). Now that current monitors are LED displays, it doesn't do much to use the site.

The post also had Ripple, a great search engine that has all its profit from your search go to the charity of your choice, including Grameen Foundation Australia and WaterAid. The last site was Green Maven which is basically an amazing eco-friendly online directory.

This update is about Ecosia. This site really makes a difference to the environment because at least 80% of its profits go towards saving rainforest. Each search saves 2.4 yd² (2.2 m²) of rainforest and they've already saved 181,690,869 yd² (166,138,131 m²) to date. They're backed by Bing, Yahoo, and WWF (the World Wide Fund for Nature), and I'll let their video tell you the rest.

Ecosia: The eco-friendly search engine from in60seconds on Vimeo.

You can check out their statistics of what's happening, browse their FAQs, and install Ecosia in your browser if you have Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, or Opera.

They're still working on the Safari add-on because of Apple's settings, but you can install a program called Glims that can personalize your search settings. On a side note, Glims also allows you to add Facebook, Wikipedia, Google Images, etc. to Safari, which is pretty cool.

What Glims can do on Safari

If you need any help with installation after installing Glims, you can email us. Happy browsing.

What Happened to All of Faseelah's Plans?

They're there! We just need to get through exams.

We have tons of updates for you guys and a great new look for the site :)

UPDATE: A spectacular Faseelah member linked me to a site, and the first thing I see is:

Sounds familiar, huh?

InspiredByMuhammad.com is everything I wanted Faseelah to work towards. Guys, this movement is getting bigger and stronger. This is the time that people want to put the humanity back into humanity.

It made my day.

See you after finals! Good luck!

Saudi Environmental Society (SENS)

Here's some basic information on the Saudi Environmental Society. You may recognize them from the billboards about the littering fine campaign. If you know of any other widespread initiatives they've taken, please let us know.

Mission

To support the governmental effort by providing advisory, research and educational services, in partnership with public and the private sectors in addition to the civil society organizations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and to strengthen cooperation and coordination among them in the field of environmental protection to achieve environmentally sustainable development in accordance with international standards.

Vision

SENS to be by the end of 1433 a leading non-for-profit organization, and a distinctive environmental center which has an effective contribution in the field of environmental protection to achieve environmentally sustainable development through genuine partnership with all stakeholders in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia community, in accordance our religion besides international environmental standards.

Earth Hour Jeddah 2010

Earth Hour was a success! Granted, compared to other countries, it didn't seem as much, but many hearts and lights were affected by the event in Jeddah.

 

The Facebook event, Earth Hour '10 JEDDAH, is thought to be a huge contributor to what set the the eco-friendly wheels in motion. Started by an average woman living in Jeddah, it spread awareness to the extent that the Saudi Wildlife is believed to have made their own Earth Hour site because of it.

 

To commemorate the hour, the promoters of the event have a must-see blog. It keeps track of all that happened during the hour, and was a great way of keeping people up to date with the awareness campaigns.

 

Unfortunately, the Saudi Wildlife appears to have its limits. Near to no roundabouts had their lights off. The Supporters' Map didn't have many supporters in Jeddah, but that's because a lot of people put in the zipcode wrong, so they showed up in different places.

 

So we didn't get it 100%, but it was lovely seeing many businesses participate, like Al Baik, Rosewood Corniche, Ikea, SABB, NCB, Il Villagio, Berlitz, Saudi Gazette, What's Up Jeddah, and so many more.