B-Hub encourages environmental entrepreneurship, organizes day for Palestinian environment

Over 200 college students from Birzeit and other Palestinian universities took part in the B-Hub’s Environment Day, part of its Green Competition, which encourages students to use innovative ideas to solve local environmental problems. 

The initiative introduced students to environmental issues in Palestine that can be resolved by engaging the local community in local, community-driven projects and programs. The initiative targets such issues as excessive energy consumption, lack of renewable energy sources, drinking water preservation, litter, air pollution, and other issues that can be easily addressed, without needing huge financial resources or manpower. 

The Environment Day comprised consultations and discussions between student teams, each with their own unique idea on how to remedy a particular environmental problem, and environmental experts and consultants, who calibrated and adjusted the ideas to better fit the Palestinian context and become more applicable on a wider scale. 

All in all, over 80 ideas and designs were submitted during the course of the day, which will be reviewed by a committee of experts and then qualify, if chosen, to the second round. 

During the second round, teams will work with experts on translating their ideas into real-life applications and environmental approaches, which, if successful, will grant them the chance at an educational trip to one of the European Union’s member states. 

The Environment Quality Authority, in an effort to encourage and shine a light on environmental entrepreneurs and innovators, created profiles that highlighted the student’s ideas, turning them into actual, deployable projects that benefit the Palestinian community and provide examples for neighboring countries.