OIST ECO Club

ECO stands for Environmentally Conscious OISTers. The OIST ECO Club is a student-run initiative that strives to make OIST a greener, healthier and more sustainable campus. It was founded on the belief that, as an international community of scientists, OIST has an inherent responsibility to be an excellent environmental steward and a model for sustainable practices. The club’s mission is to protect and care for the land, sea, animals and people on the island, and to leave Okinawa – and the world – in better condition than we found it.

The ECO Club organises projects and initiatives to raise awareness, inform the community about environmental issues, and encourage positive change. For example, the ECO Club previously ran an awareness campaign to demonstrate the magnitude of plastic waste produced on campus. This involved collecting all plastic bags discarded at OIST in one week and using them to create a large public art exhibit, alongside informative posters about plastic waste. This project was a positive step towards the ECO Club’s major goal of making OIST a plastic-free campus. The ECO club also hosts events such as beach cleans and documentary film screenings on environmental issues.