Ayça ÇELİKBİLEK, research assistant at the Istanbul Medeniyet University Sustainability Office, and Sıla Selin ÖZKAN, a member of the Sustainability Student Club, brought great pride to our university by winning in all three categories of the Green Dot Student Awards organized by the ÇEVKO Foundation with the sustainable projects they prepared.
The Green Dot Student Awards competition, organized by the ÇEVKO Foundation to encourage students to develop original environmentally friendly products, applications, and projects and to foster university-industry collaboration, was evaluated in three different categories: Packaging Eco-Design, Waste Management System and Applications, and Environmental Social Responsibility Applications. The IMU Sustainability Team achieved great success by winning awards in all of these categories.
At the awards ceremony held at the TOBB Istanbul Service Building on Tuesday, December 2, 2025, the team won first place in the “Packaging Eco-Design” category with their project “ReCup: Biodegradable Packaging System for a Zero-Waste Coffee Experience” They also won first place in the “Environmental Social Responsibility Practices” category with their project “Transformation Festival” implemented between May and June 2025. They also won second place with their “Zero Point” project, designed to improve the efficiency of waste collection and management systems on campus. Presentations of the winning projects were also made at the ceremony, attended by academics, industry representatives, and investors. Research assistant Ayça ÇELİKBİLEK presented the ReCup project, and Sıla Selin ÖZKAN, a member of IMUSUS, presented the Transformation Festival project. The projects’ technical innovations and solution-generating capabilities, as well as the fact that the same team received awards in all three categories, attracted the attention of the public and investors.
The Transformation Festival, an exemplary social responsibility project supported by the ÜNİDES Program of the Ministry of Youth and Sports of the Republic of Turkey, which brings our university’s sustainability efforts to a wide audience, won first place in this field. A rich program of activities was implemented within the scope of the project, which included 63 workshops and training sessions held over the course of a month, focusing on the on-site recycling and upcycling of paper, plastic, and textile waste. Collaborations with Kadıköy Municipality, Maltepe Municipality, Bakırköy Municipality, Arçelik, and TylmanDesign strengthened both the technical quality and the social impact of the training and workshops organized within the scope of the project. Thanks to the on-site recycling workshops established as part of the project, 13 kg of waste was processed and recycled on-site during the project period; 750 g of greenhouse gases were prevented from being released into the atmosphere during these production processes, and waste management experience was shared with a wide range of students in a practical way. The project reached 1,136 direct and 44,236 indirect participants in one month, making a significant contribution to raising sustainability awareness across the city. The impact of the Transformation Festival was not limited to the duration of the project; Two transformation workshops established on campus continue to provide hands-on training to young people and generate new transformation projects at our university. This lasting impact has made the project one of the most successful social responsibility initiatives of the year.
The ReCup project particularly attracted investor interest in the competition. Originating from field observations revealing that most paper coffee cups, consumed extensively on university campuses, are non-recyclable due to their composite structure, the project presented an innovative packaging solution that embraces a zero-waste approach while also providing secondary functions for cups. The cup, lid, and sleeve structures were designed to be compostable and offer the user a second use. ReCup’s structure, which not only transforms packaging but also consumer behavior, and its design integrity, which directly targets waste reduction, made it one of the strongest examples of eco-design in the competition. The ReCup project attracted significant interest from investors and academics due to its sustainable design approach, functional features that transform the user experience, and its solution-oriented response to concrete waste issues identified on campus. The project’s potential for future development and commercialization has led to investor support.
Zero Point was submitted to the competition as a more advanced and implementable version of a green project design prepared by our university as part of the Medeniyet Olympics. The project aimed to correct identified errors in the campus’s waste management system, reduce mishandling rates, digitize recycling bin occupancy tracking, and increase student active participation in the process. Zero Point offered a holistic waste management model with components such as smart recycling bins, mobile app integration, a reward and points system, on-site upcycling/recycling modules, and waste tracking software. This structure aimed to separate waste at the campus’s source, increase recycling output, and establish data-based management processes. The project’s feasibility, technical consistency, and solution approach based on the campus’s actual needs were instrumental in the jury’s second-place award.
The Sustainable IMU team won a second award in a major competition in the same year, increasing the national visibility of the Sustainable IMU program. These achievements across all categories demonstrate Istanbul Medeniyet University’s innovative approach to sustainability and its capacity to address on-campus challenges, while also strengthening our university’s position among Turkey’s leading institutions in environmental and sustainability efforts.
