Head of the center: Dr. Avigail Dolev.

The Yaakov Rozen Center for Sustainability, founded in 2018, serves as a knowledge hub and platform for research into the theory and practice of sustainability at Shenkar and in industry.

The center’s activity is based on the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) , which touch on a range of issues. The goals are: no poverty; zero hunger; good health; quality education; gender equality; clean water; clean energy; decent work and economic growth; industry, innovation and infrastructure; reduced inequalities; sustainable cities and communities; responsible consumption and production; climate action; life below water; life on land, peace, justice and strong institutions; and partnerships to achieve the goals.

The Rozen Center for Sustainability, headed by Dr. Avigail Dolev, operates across Shenkar's fields of expertise to promote sustainability at every level. The center’s goal is to foster groundbreaking multidisciplinary research incorporating art, design and engineering. The Rozen Center also serves as a platform for students and a source of knowledge for advancing entrepreneurship and innovation that integrate the values of sustainability, and for implementing sustainable development principles in different projects.

The Rozen Center’s vision: “To lead innovative and groundbreaking research in sustainability and provide students a platform for sustainability knowledge and work.”

(Dr. Avigail Dolev, head of the Rozen Center for Sustainability)

A Platform for Students

The Rozen Center’s activity includes collaborations with bodies outside Shenkar, including a collaboration with the Ramat Gan Municipality to rehabilitate the Kofer Stream; research conducted with the European Union on urbanism; and a collaboration with 8200 Impact to establish an accelerator for Shenkar students, alumni and professors. Within this accelerator, each graduate or professor is invited to propose an innovative idea for impact entrepreneurism and is given a supportive platform to advance the idea to the stage of developing a prototype for a feasibility study.

In recent years, since the establishment of the Rozen Center, there has been a great focus on sustainability at Shenkar, much of it thanks to professors introducing a green agenda into the arts, as well as the textile, fashion and engineering industries. At the School of Industrial Engineering and Management's department hackathon, for example, participants proposed workable sustainability solutions and ways of integrating them into industry, development companies and even public policy and administration.

“The center touches on everything from green construction and engineering to design and fashion, as well as every other facet of our lives. This includes the idea of facilitating a circular economy, educating people to reduce consumption and simultaneously developing a smart circular economy to reduce the waste that goes to landfill.”

(Dr. Avigail Dolev, head of the Rozen Center for Sustainability)

Green Campus

The Rozen Center for Sustainability, together with Shenkar’s Student Union, manages the Green Campus project, which promotes recycling and energy efficiency and raises awareness among students and professors. At the students' initiative, orange trash bins were set up on the campus in accordance with Israel’s Packaging Law; in the future, we plan to advance steps such as recycling water, improving energy efficiency, and implementing green construction in the college’s departments.

The Rozen Award for Sustainability

Since its establishment, the Rozen Center has awarded an annual prize for students who present groundbreaking sustainability research or solutions. Starting this year, the center will add an award for outstanding 1st-3rd year students who advance student sustainability projects.

“Our mission is to constantly improve”

The Rozen Center is led by Dr. Avigail Dolev. Dr. Dolev has a PhD in public administration and specializes in implementing the principles of sustainable development in urban planning products. She is also an architect with a master’s degree in real estate appraisal from the University of Haifa and a master’s degree in desert studies from the Bona Terra Department of Man in the Desert at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. In parallel to her role as head of the Rozen Center for Sustainability at Shenkar, she is an impact fashion entrepreneur, and an urban and sustainable development lecturer and consultant.

Dr. Dolev led urban-environmental planning in the Haifa District on behalf of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel and managed the Sustainable Buildings (Green Building) Standard at the Standards Institution of Israel. She also served as the director general of the Nesher Municipality and the director general of Nofit; and in every position she has held, she has championed urban sustainability and green construction.