His Excellency Prof. Dr. Abdulrahman bin Hamad Al-Dawood, President of the University, stressed that achieving environmental sustainability is one of the most important pillars of the Kingdom's Vision 2030, in order to raise the efficiency of waste management and reduce pollution, as the Kingdom is an active member of the international system, especially the G20, which seeks to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals, pointing out that the issue of waste management is related to a number of UN goals, including industry, innovation, infrastructure, sustainable cities, sustainable production and consumption, as well as reducing climate change.

This came during the UQU President's patronage of the First International Conference on Sustainability of Natural Resources: Sustainable Solid Waste Management, which was launched on Tuesday morning, 8/3/1441 AH, organized by the University College of Engineering and the Center for Sustainable Development, at the main lobby of the University City for men, and for women at the theater of the College of Economics and Administration, over two days with the participation of 36 speakers to cover all the themes and objectives of this scientific meeting, which aims to discuss the necessary measures to shift to sustainable food systems.

Al-Dawood added that the university seeks to achieve sustainability through its centers, research and scientists, through a system of integration and cooperation between its units, educational and research programs, thanking the sponsors of the conference, the Municipality of Qassim, and all contributing sectors inside and outside the university.

The UQU President also inaugurated the exhibition accompanying the conference, in which 6 governmental and private entities participated, including the corner of the Qassim Municipality, a corner of the College of Engineering, a corner of the Sustainable Development Center, a corner of the City Cement Company, the Cleaning Machinery Factory Limited, and Al-Fahad Company.

For his part, Prof. Khaled Bani Al-Harbi, Vice President for Planning, Development and Quality, spoke about the importance of this conference, which comes in line with the university's sense of its strategic role in the Kingdom in general and the region in particular, and embodies the Kingdom's aspirations emanating from Vision 2030, which gives great importance to the economic and quality of life fields, pointing out that the university has adopted a number of academic activities to embody this role, the most important of which is this type of scientific meetings, in addition to supporting research in this field and including sustainability concepts in the courses of academic programs, and recently

"Al-Harbi" added: The Organizing Committee held more than 12 lengthy meetings to prepare for the conference, while the meetings of the other executive committees exceeded more than 30 working meetings, 19 of which were for the scientific committee, and the preparatory team's working hours reached more than 150 working hours, and the working team included more than 36 members, and this work resulted in the participation of more than 15 countries with 168 participants, and more than 120 scientific research papers were judged.

Al-Harbi explained that the organizing committee and those in charge of this conference, which dedicates to sustainability as a concept and research through participants and interested parties, decided to go beyond this conference to be sustainable even in its organizational printer, extending thanks and appreciation to the partners of success represented by the strategic partner Medina Cement Company, silver sponsor Al Fahad Company, supporting sponsor Qassim Municipality, and the cooperating parties with the conference, in particular the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture represented by the Environment Agency and the Ministry's branch in the region represented by His Excellency Engineer Salman Al-Suwaina, as well as the General Department of Education in the region represented by His Excellency Mr.

After that, the Dean of the College of Engineering, Dr. Meshaal bin Ibrahim Al-Mashaigah, said that the College of Engineering at the university attaches great importance to the topics of sustainability of natural resources due to its specialized nature, so that the college is one of the most important arms of the university to achieve this noble purpose alongside the relevant specialized bodies from other colleges and units, the most important of which is the Center for Sustainable Development at the university, as a partner in organizing and incubating the conference with the college in holding this qualitative international forum.

The conference aims to show the size of wasted natural and economic resources and estimate the environmental cost of waste, as well as discuss the necessary measures to shift to sustainable food systems in which waste is minimized and food waste is reduced, in addition to stimulating integration between partners from different disciplines for sustainable waste management, studying opportunities to stimulate investment in the field of developing waste recycling technologies in the Kingdom, and studying the obstacles to investment in the field of waste conversion industries, through several themes discussed by the conference, namely: Effective management, valued food and responsible citizens, attractive and ambitious investment, and a cohesive team for environmental protection and sustainability.

The organizers of the conference seek to contribute to the preparation of a vision on sustainable solid waste management at the national and international level, through the participation of a number of experts, academics and specialists from 15 countries in this field and discuss the results of the latest studies, research and scientific papers related to sustainable solid waste management through 6 sessions over the two days of the conference, in order to reduce the per capita consumption rates in Saudi Arabia of some goods and services, which are among the highest rates globally, increasing the volume of solid waste generated and reducing the depletion of natural resources and their deterioration due to consumption rates.

The Dean of the College of Engineering added that the conference also seeks to address the challenges arising from waste, which is the responsibility of every member of society, raise community awareness of the risks arising from waste generation, encourage initiatives aimed at improving sustainable waste management, and provide an opportunity to exchange experiences and knowledge among specialists in waste management and sustainable development.

Then, the speech of the sponsors was delivered by the Executive Director of City Cement, Mr. Majed bin Abdulrahman Al-Asilan, in which he stressed the existence of millions of tons of municipal waste, estimated at billions of riyals, which contains organic and inorganic materials, including food and blessings that God has blessed this blessed country with and other materials that could have been recycled and transformed into energy to achieve added value to the nation. Unfortunately, they end up in landfills, which is a type of waste and contradicts our Islamic values and teachings, in addition to the negative environmental effects resulting from the dumping of waste into the ground, some of which need more than 100 years to decompose in nature.

He pointed out that most of the developed European countries, such as Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, the amount of waste that goes to landfills is almost zero, as no waste is landfilled, and if necessary, very high fees are paid for landfilling to limit these practices and protect the environment, by replacing the use of petroleum fuels with renewable energy and alternative fuels. He extended his sincere thanks and appreciation to all colleagues at the university and the organizers of this conference for their blessed efforts and for their contribution to achieving the directives of our wise government in raising awareness about the environment and sustainability, supporting coordination between the public and private sectors, and contributing to the realization of the Kingdom's Vision 2030 to put the Kingdom in the ranks of developed countries.

For his part, the Director of the Center for Sustainable Development, Mr. Ibrahim bin Saleh Al-Rubadi, spoke about the vision of the Center for Sustainable Development at the university for sustainability through a balanced and integrated approach to achieve fair development between regions and generations, each taking his right and each doing his duty towards his environment, society and economy to complete the three clusters of sustainability, and sustainability addresses waste in its physical, technical, social, technical, informational, financial and economic dimensions.

Al-Rabdi explained that waste management is linked to a number of UN goals, especially the ninth goal, which is industry, innovation and infrastructure, the eleventh goal related to sustainable cities, the twelfth goal related to sustainable production and consumption, and the thirteenth goal, which is concerned with reducing climate change. We hope that this conference seeks to accurately diagnose the issues and develop appropriate solutions by the scientists and experts gathered, and we hope that the objectives of this conference will be realized and its recommendations translated into useful practical projects

The conference was attended by UQU Vice President Dr. Mohammed Al-Saawi, UQU Vice President for Educational Affairs Dr. Mohammed Al-Obayeb, UQU Vice President for Postgraduate Studies and Scientific Research Prof. Ahmed Al-Turki, Engineer Salman Al-Suwaina, Director of the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture Branch in Qassim, Mr. Saleh Al-Jasser, Director of the Education Department in Qassim, Engineer Abdul Mohsen Al-Furaihi, Director of the Water Directorate in Qassim, Engineer Abdulaziz Al-Salim, Deputy Secretary of Qassim Region, college deans, faculty members and students at the university.