Staff Reporter

"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." The concept of sustainable development can be interpreted in many different ways, but experts believe that at its core is an approach to development that looks to balance different, and often competing, needs against an awareness of the environmental, social and economic limitations we face as a society.
The Sustainable Development Club (SDC) of the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) is a unique student club due to its diverse interests to develop creative, balanced and achievable solutions to the physical and social challenges faced within the society according to the club website. It looks into the interconnected nature of the ‘sustainability challenge’ as well.  ULAB Sustainable Development Club (ULAB-SDC) is active through their action oriented projects, seminars, workshops, field trips and ongoing working groups to better understand the connections between environment, economic prosperity and social justice. ULAB-SDC is involved with different social and environmental activities from its inception.
Waste Management Project with Swiss contact: The club has taken up the responsibility to work on waste management and thus a workshop was conducted at ULAB. Recently, the club has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with I-NGO: Swiss contact under the Value for Waste (VfW) project.  The duration of this MoU is one year and is valid from December 2014 to December 2015.  The initiative focuses on reducing the burden of waste on the environment while creating more income and employment in the formal recycling sector.
Workshop on Waste Management: In October 2014, the Swiss contact carried out a workshop on ‘Waste Management’ showing how to segregate household wastes according to the type of the waste. Also demonstrating the process of composting, using a composter.
Open Street Mapping: On 13th December 2014, ULAB-SDC received training on Open Street mapping. This training was arranged with the vision to map important parts of Dhanmondi in 2015. Y&I published a report on the workshop conducted at University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) on 18th December, 2014.
Open Street Mapping with World Bank: During January 2015, it conducted a work in collaboration with World Bank (WB) to map missing places in Hazaribagh for Humanitarian purposes. By doing so, it has created a relationship with WB and now they are interested to continue this work with us for 2015. The Club has been highly appreciated by international experts recently for their work.
Red Crescent, Bangladesh is also interested to have SDC on board for their mapping projects, while the club is planning to form ‘Trainers of OSM’ within the club so that they can provide training to the new recruits under the club. The club is coordinating with WB to arrange TOT (Training for Trainers) on OSM in the coming months.  
ULAB Sustainable Development Club members nominated for National Award from Youth Parliament on Right to Food: ULAB-SDC participated in the Hunger Free World Program which is about the safe food crisis in the respective district of the selected participant. Members of the club participated in a mock parliamentary session, where their active participation has aided in getting nominated for the award.
Celebration of International Water day: ULAB-SDC celebrates the International water day on 22nd March 2015. ULAB-SDC organizes Inter University Photo Contest, Addressing theme “Water and Sustainable Development Seminar to insure the present situation of water in Bangladesh and the whole world as well. Inter university round table discussion where students from more than 5 universities attend to share their ideas and opinion about how we can solve the growing problems of Water in Bangladesh. This event was held to create a basic awareness about how to manage water and other resources and how we could manage those resources wisely.
Protest against Women Harassment to protect our national culture: The members of ULAB-SDC were take initiatives to take some protective action in order to save the culture by saving women from different kinds of harassments.  
Other Activities: ULAB-SDC participated in the Environmental Idea Generation Competition presented by Earth Club of NSU: In December 2014. Four groups from ULAB-SDC had participated in the Environmental Idea Generation Competition. One of the groups named Greenovate was selected in the second round of the competition out of more than hundred participants.
ULAB-SDC’s vision serves as the framework for its Road-map and guides every aspect of its mission by describing what it needs to accomplish in order to continue the progresses. Where includes, be a responsible citizen that makes a difference by helping build and support sustainable solutions for communities, educate young minds of Bangladesh about the importance of sustainable development for the society as well as the nation and be an effective, social objective driven club in ULAB.