SBIA’s Sustainability Initiative

Our tradition reminds us to be good stewards of the earth. With your active participation, SBIA is formally launching a sustainability initiative.

As part of SBIA's sustainability initiative, we will be making operational changes to reduce our consumption and wastage. Some of these changes will directly impact attendees and visitors to our facilities.

1. Reducing food wastage
Starting this month, all SBIA hosted dinners will be RSVP events.

Why are we doing this?
Reduce food wastage – knowing how many will attend our events ahead of time will enable us to accurately order food amount and arrange single-use utensils.

How will this work:
– Ahead of the event, SBIA will provide link where attendees can RSVP if they will attend the events
– RSVP will provide you a confirmation note – bar coded sheet or some identifier. Please keep this safely.
– RSVP will close either based on date and time or seating count
– At the event, attendees will be required to check in by presenting their confirmation note
– Attendee will be provided a dinner token, which will be collected at the dinner service table
– All RSVP attendees will be served dinner first followed by non-RSVP attendees and subsequent servings

Please note, RSVP is per person. When RSVPing for a family, please provide accurate count of the total number of guests.

FAQ:
– I did not receive confirmation?
If you used your email at the time of RSVP, please check your email's Spam/Junk folders.
At time of RSVP, please ensure you have entered your email correctly.

– Although I have RSVPed, I have a change in plan and will not be able to attend.
Please cancel your RSVP at the same link. We will release your RSVP to first non-RSVP guest.

– I had a last minute guest and I am bringing them along. Can I RSVP after online is closed?
You are welcome to bring guests. However, our food order will be placed ahead of time and we will not be able to make last minute changes.

– Does RSVP guarantee my dinner?
While SBIA will make every attempt to arrange an appropriate quantity of food at events, there could be limited circumstances in which food may run out.

– Does this include Jumuah lunch and Ramadan suhoor/iftar?
No, at Jumuah food vendors manage the quantity of the food they sell and we do not require RSVP. During Ramadan we will not require RSVP on any days.

Please accept our apologies in advance for any inconvenience caused and bear with us as we learn and improve our process.

2. Consumables
Over the past two years, we have eliminated styrofoam plates and cups. We have been using biodegradable plates for food service at SBIA. InshaAllah, we will be switching to paper cups in the near future instead of the plastic cups currently in use. Plastic stirrers have already been replaced with wood stirrers for hot drinks.

Longer term, we will encourage the community to use reusable bottles, eliminating the use of cups. Plasticware will also be transitioned to biodegradable forks, knives and spoons.

3. Recycling
We are working with our waste collection company to allow for separate collection of recyclables and waste.
Please note that SBIA is NOT set up to recycle Islamic materials for you. Please recycle these materials yourselves. Old tapes, CDs, DVDs can be recycled at any facility that accepts electronic recycling materials. Do not leave these at SBIA!