Cross-Cultural Blog

Greetings from across the Atlantic! If any of you guys ever came to Cairo, you probably noticed that it’s a polluted city. Where else would you see a bus blowing more smoke than a big fire? In order to avoid polluting our city even more, the American University in Cairo developed an environmentally friendly campus. Other than classrooms, meeting halls and buildings our campus also has a lot of greenery. There are 1,216 date palms such as the ones shown in the photo and a lot of grass areas. Being surrounded by this kind of environment is a pleasant experience when you live in a crowded and polluted city such as Cairo.
Also, the AUC campus is a pedestrian area. This allows us to take a break from the very crowded streets all over the city even if we have to walk around all day in the sun. The only other way of getting around on campus is the golf carts which are not pollutant. But unfortunately they are reserved for faculty members.
The AUC also encourages recycling. More than 75 percent of the stone in the wall that circles the campus “was recycled from stone that would otherwise have been discarded as waste”. Other than that example, as you can see in the picture, our university also tries to sort garbage. This will later help recycle some of the things thrown away such as paper that will otherwise be a problem to the environment.
These are some aspects of our environmentally friendly campus. I hope I didn’t scare you away with the bus story. Cairo is still a great place to visit, after all it is the land of the great pharaohs. Talk to you soon!

YOUSSEF Youssef (This is actually my first and last name, I didn’t write my name twice)

Source: http://www.aucegypt.edu/newcairocampus/Pages/default.aspx