The Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology says it plans to provide free bicycles for use on its campus in a bid to minimize motorized vehicle traffic.
Prof. Triyogi Yuwono, the rector of the university known as ITS, said on Friday that the campaign would be rolled out in phases as part of a wider drive toward making the university an “Eco Campus.”
“We’re trying to find ways to protect the local environment, and one of them is to reduce the amount of motorized traffic within the campus,” he said.
“We’re not aiming for a car-free campus yet, but hopefully we can impose car-free hours during certain times of the day.”
He said the plan for now was to introduce the car-free hour program every Friday starting in mid-November.
“We’ll provide bicycles at certain locations throughout the campus so that people can use them to get around,” the rector said.
“We’re also working with INKA [the state-owned train manufacturer] on the feasibility of building a low-emission or even battery-powered light rail system inside the campus. We hope that through these efforts, we can promote greater environmental stewardship, at least here at ITS.”
Triyogi said that starting this year, ITS would take a more proactive approach toward protecting the environment in a bid to instill its graduates with a greater understanding of the importance of the issue.
“A high regard for environmental sustainability will be the hallmark of ITS graduates from now on,” he said.
“The truth is, I’m ashamed that we haven’t been at the forefront of this movement all along. I never knew that ITS had a garbage-sorting facility, but it turns out that ours wasn’t nearly as good as those set up by some community groups elsewhere in Surabaya.”
As part of the Eco Campus campaign, each new batch of students, starting with the around 7,000 freshmen this year, will have to plant a sapling on the campus grounds and nurture it for six months.
“They’ll be obliged to report regularly on the growth of their trees and will receive an award for keeping their trees healthy and strong,” said Ahmad Rusdiansyah, the Eco Campus program manager.
Another measure that falls under the wider campaign is ensuring that all new buildings at ITS qualify as “green buildings.”
“For instance, they’ll be designed in such a way that they won’t need air-conditioning for cooling,” Rusdiansyah said.
“We’ll also try to save electricity and water.”
