Nearly 20 students from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Society for Humanitarian and Sustainability Engineering helped to beautify the UH Mānoa campus on March 14.
Following COVID-19 safety protocols, the students collected 15 large bags of trash including a broken and rusting pipe, a car mat, discarded and rotting wood blocks, plastic and glass bottles, and styrofoam cups and trays. All bags were discarded in dumpster bins across the campus. The effort was in collaboration with the UH Mānoa Office of Planning and Facilities.
“As officers of the Society for Humanitarian and Sustainability Engineering, we chose to organize a campus cleanup as a club that aims to serve the community,” said Lisa Lowe, project manager and UH Mānoa bio-engineering major. “Among these aims, we think it is important to keep the campus as clean as possible for health, safety, and beautification purposes, and having a clean environment.”
Lowe added, “This was our first community service event since the club started this year, and seeing everyone coming together for a common goal to give back to our campus, and understanding the importance of respecting our environment is always good to see.”
The students plan to conduct another cleanup in fall 2021. The Society for Humanitarian and Sustainability Engineering is a registered independent organization housed in the UH Mānoa College of Engineering.
This effort is an example of UH Mānoa’s goal of Building a Sustainable and Resilient Campus Environment: Within the Global Sustainability and Climate Resilience Movement (PDF), one of four goals identified in the 2015–25 Strategic Plan (PDF), updated in December 2020.
