An extensive number of individuals and organisations vowed to reduce their carbon footprint during Qatar Green Building Council’s (QGBC) fifth edition of Qatar Sustainability Week (QSW), which wrapped up on Saturday. 
Through the new initiative this year, the Qatar Foundation entity aims to create a nationwide movement that sees the local community adopt more sustainable choices and practices.  
QSW 2020, which began on October 31, showcased the innovative and practical solutions of various stakeholders to global environmental challenges, and highlighted Qatar’s contributions and progress towards the implementation of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.
“Supporting Qatar’s sustainability goals, as communicated in Qatar National Vision 2030, is fundamental to QGBC’s sustainability campaign and strategies. Our QSW events have always been focused on creating better awareness about sustainability among Qatar’s communities and industry and business sectors to help align their methods and sustainability objectives with the national vision. With the number of people and organisations that participated in this year’s QSW, I believe we have made a huge step forward towards achieving our objective,” QGBC  director Meshal al-Shamari said.
With a special focus on highlighting and promoting the adaptive strategies that lead to greener cities and communities, QGBC collaborated with the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) and Qatar National Tourism Council. 
The entities hosted a joint conference that explored the impact of carbon neutrality on green hospitality and its importance in hosting world class events, like the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
QGBC also hosted a conference promoting health and well-being as key drivers to wider sustainability and climate actions. The second conference was part of WorldGBC’s Well-being Framework’s Mena launch. 
The framework was developed to help GBCs worldwide and their members prove the benefits of green, sustainable buildings to people’s health and well-being and, consequently, influence demand and accelerate a sustainable built environment.
Shireen Obeidat, who leads QGBC’s outreach activities, said that despite the restrictions of coronavirus, the event was a success - holding more than 120 events, and bringing together 150 partners and 50,000 participants. 
The national campaign also received more than 3mn impressions on the social media platforms this year.
This year’s QSW’s success was driven by the active participation of various stakeholders from the private and public sectors. QSW 2020 Strategic Partners includes SC; Msheireb Properties; The Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation (Kahramaa), through its National Programme for Conservation and Energy Efficiency (Tarsheed); Qatar National Bank; Tadmur Holding; Al Wakra Municipality and Qatar Museums, in addition to community partners Greener Future and Doha Environmental Actions Group.
The campaign was also supported by a number of media partners, including the Qatar Media Corporation as the official media partner, Marhaba, I Love Qatar, Social Media Solutions, Bigbfotografi, SEAB, Your Onion, and Doha Heat.