Universities going green around the world

Last week I had the luck to be present in 3rd international sustainable univeristies' conference, taking place in Lausanne, Switzerland, organised by International Sustainable Campus Network. It was amazing to know that so prestigious universities like Yale, Harvard, Cambridge, etc are also taking direction towards becoming more sustainable. It was also nice to see that there were universities present in the conference from almost all the continents.
Unversities seem to be seeking sustainability in mainly 2 directions:
1) reducing the negative environmental impact of their buldings through energy efficiency, reducing water use, amount of waste, CO2 emissions, etc;
2) creating environmental awareness, involving students, scientists, management and local communities into common actions towards sustainability.

Listening to different presentations, taking part in workshops and just discussing with different university leaders, there was one clear message: students are seen as key part towards change. Universities are looking for different ways how to involve students more, as in that way it's also easier to convice other parties to contribute to changes. Also, this year, first 2 awards for sustainable universities (construction and impact award) were given out, but there is plan to create more categories, one of them being award for student initiatives. And btw, representative from Higher Education Environmental Performance Improvement in UK seemed to be quite interested in cooperation with AEGEE ;)

So I think that there is much that we as students and AEGEE memebrs could do to spread the idea of sustainable universities in Europe, to make our own universities more sustainable. There are so many good examples to show already in the world, we just need to make our voices heard. After all, universities as education and research centres can play so important role in turning whole society towards sustainability.

SuFu panda visited Ljubljana on his EDE journey

One month ago a decision was made that this year SuFu panda will also visit Ljubljana among other European cities on his EDE journey. Because of this high visit we needed to start making our plan very quickly, as we really wanted to prepare something big to surprise our dear guest. On the first meeting, three weeks ago, the AEGEE-Ljubljana EDE team gathered and after a long brainstorming session we all agreed, that we wish to prepare a nice celebration eco event somewhere in nature, where we can join serious environmental topics with pure fun. So we decided to make an afternoon event under the blue sky in Tivoli, the biggest park in Ljubljana. We imagined preparing a big promotion campaign about European Day of Environment. Eco booth joined with Eco street action seemed a pretty good idea for convincing people to act more environmentally friendly. To make things little bit more interactive we also decided to prepare two workshops: the first one about climate changes in connection with renewable energies and a second one about the healthy way of living through sport activities (this time we’ve tried Pilates). But that’s not all, as we all know the European Parliament elections are just in front of us, so we also decided to finish the Yvote project in Ljubljana and we promoted European elections through the eyes of the environment as we were encouraging people to go to the elections, to vote and to take into consideration the environmental aspect while voting.

Three days ago the big day finally came. The weather forecast wasn’t one of the best for having an outside event, so we were keeping our fingers crossed that meteorologists made some mistakes while forecasting the weather for Slovenia. We, a team full of positive energy, gathered in the park and surrounded by nature, started with the last preparations in the early afternoon. When SuFu panda joined us at 4 p.m. and the event officially started, everything was ready for the first visitors to come. Despite some clouds the sun was shining strongly and people were coming by on their bikes, some of them were even running by, but most of them were just on the walk through the nice park with their children and pets or they were on the way home from work. When they saw that there is something unusual happening in the park, they’ve stopped and were curiously asking us what is going on. We explained them, that we’re celebrating EDE and that we wished every single one of them to start doing something good for the environment. We gave them some useful materials about different environmental topics and some materials about European elections. For the children we prepared some nicely coloured eco balloons.

We’ve also gotten two very interesting visits. First there were two policemen on horses who scared us little bit, because they could have started complicating, but in the end everything turned out ok. We gave them some apples for the horses and they took a small snack for themselves. Then they wished us luck with the weather and went their own way :) The second interesting visit was when a mother with a child came by and stopped for a while, searching for more information on what we’re doing. Then she found out we are from AEGEE and became very sentimental. She started explaining to us that she was also an AEGEEan in her younger age and that she had traveled the whole Europe with AEGEE while learning a lot and having so much fun during that time. It looked like she envied us a little bit our youthfulness, but at the same time she was so grateful for that amazing AEGEE experience and just before she left, she wished us good luck with our future projects.

As I mentioned before, we also prepared two workshops. The first one was about climate changes and the speaker from Association for Sustainable Development Focus gave us some general information about it and explained to us, what every person can do to make he’s ecological footprint smaller. The second one, Pilates workshop, was made in a more funny way and while we’re outside exercising in the nature, we made something good for our body, mind and health in general. And don’t think that guys didn’t try it, they did, we have proof; just look at the photos carefully :)

When the official part of EDE event was over, it was of course time for the unofficial part, so we went together to the eco party, where AEGEE-Ljubljana board members, SU Ljubljana team members and some of the participants of the event joined us and had fun with us. In conclusion, everything was just great - green program, cosy atmosphere, many interested visitors, nice and funny organizers and even the weather was beautiful – great success! In the end I would like to deeply thank my dear EDE team, you’ve made this great event possible and you’ve made it so special, thank you – hvala!

Panda hugs from AEGEE-Ljubljana EDE team ;-)

Photography by Blaž Šteblaj

Let's get "Sustainability" in the Spanish Dictionary!

I want to share something with all of you... I found out an iniciative that links to some prevoius post fo Kadri, and it is quite interesting idea: someone found out that in the Royal Academy of Spanish Language Dictionary there is not a definition of Sustainability.

They used the technologies that are now available and created a website to promote the inclusion of the word with a proper definition; but not only that, they are also asking people to propose definitions, to arrive to a common place for such an important word nowadays. Because, if lacking a definition is bad, a bad definition would be much worse.

Here is the webiste just for you to look at (if you understand Spanish would be much better):

http://www.sostenibilidadaldiccionario.com/index.php

In the Galeria link, you can find other kind of definitions: videos , pictures... people is quite creative on definitions!

But I want to see that AEGEE people is also creative, so you can send definitions here or you can even send videos there to that website. I will translate the best ones and send them to the website, so we gain also visibility for our project!

Danube Project, a Rich Source of Inspiration!

The Danube Project has just received a YiA grant for both of its seminars, one in The Danube Delta and the other in Bratislava taking place in august and september!

So, now, long preparations are being made in order to make these events trully remarkable!

The first seminar will be held in the Danube Delta, from 15-21 August.

The SuFu team has already prepared an adventurous program with study trips to local villages, to the famous Letea Forest, boat trips, workshops as well as practical activities like clean-up sessions, eco-friendly art, photo exhibition and many more to come...

But why choosing the Danube Delta for our project?

Danube Delta is literally a migrant birds paradise! Being declared a UNESCO heritage and a reservation of Biosphere the wonderful delta was formed as the Danube River reverses itself into the Black Sea.

There are around 331 species of birds, 83 species of fish, 2244 insects and 42 species of mammals, from which thousands of swans, pelicans, wild ducks and sturgeons. A very diverse flora with around 2000 types of plants has grown in the surroundings made up of channels, ponds, flooded areas and lakes as well as beaches and salt water areas. The flora also includes the famous Letea Forest, with climbing plants, elm and oak trees.

The population living in this area is quite small, the region being one of the least inhabited in Europe. There are around 27 villages in the region, in which the people usually live on what the Danube provides, by fishing, subsistence agriculture or local tourism.

The main sources of pollution come from pesticides, industrial and city residuals from the rivers that reverse into the Danube. Other source is garbage disposal form the local villages as well as from tourists.

That is why ecotourism and sustainable development are key-issues...
This is also why we have placed our project in this wonderful area!
This ...along with a possible weakness for "danubian" and romanian traditional cuisine, culture, all in an aegeean atmosphere...

EDE competition!

We are glad to let you know some news for European Day of Environment!

Join a photo/video competition "Renewable energy" from May 25th till June 12th!

"Sustaining our Future" team has formed a partnership with the connect2earth initative, run by WWF and IUCN, and powered by Nokia!

1) Make a short video or photo series in the topic of renewable energy - how it could fit to our everyday life, what good can it bring, what is the future of renewable energy, etc.

2) From May 25th to June 12th, upload it to www.connect2earth.org site and remember to put your antenna name and "EDE" in the description of your post. Details how to upload your photos/videos, can be found here.

3) On June 19th, a jury composed of one member from WWF, IUCN and the SuFu team will select the winner, who will be awarded an environmental mobile phone solar charger and get a special highlight on the connect2earth site!

4) All the uploaded videos and photos will also compete in the overall connect2earth competition lasting throughout the year, with the final prize of participation in the UN Climate Change Negotiations in Copenhagen in December.

You can already check out the site now: www.connect2earth.org

How to define "sustainable development"?

I'm sure most people have heard this term somewhere. Another thing is to actually understand what is meant with it, and moreover how to achieve it and why we would even want it?
The most known and sort of "official" definition says it's "development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the abiliy of future generations to meet their needs". Lot's of broad words, isn't it?
In the survey made in autumn among AEGEE members, we asked the people to define it in their own words. And here's what came out.
Almost half of the answers mentioned that sustainable development is something keeping in mind the future generations, around 1/3 mentioned that it's mainly to protect and safeguard the environment. The 2 other sustainable development pillars (the concept consists of 3 pillars: environment, economy and society) were mentioned less: around 20% put the focus on economical development, and 15% to social welfare.
"Managing the resources" was also the keywords mentioned quite often, whether they were meant as natural resources or some other resources. As activity, desides using the word "development", respondents mentioned "efficient" or "rational resource use", "improvement of life quality" and few times also "technology". What could be also brought out is that the need to sutain our planet, world was mentioned more times than the needs and benefits to human race.
Of course there are always some more creative ways to define "sustainable development" like: "living without messing up the world too much" :)

What can be concluded based on this question? That in general, young people do have some overview what this concept means, the need to preserve our world for future generations and environmental protection as key activity seem to be the most important parts of it.

For those, wanting to read more about sustainable development definitions, click here. Also, a sort of speculation of the "official" definition can be found here.
Give your thoughts: how do you see sustainable development? Is it actually something we should strive for? How far can we actually develop?

European Day of Environment

Ready for next activity by the flagship project "Sustaining our Future"?

Want to be part of the SuFu Panda team?


Do you think that 5th of June is just an ordinary day?
Yes?
Hmm, you`re wrong!
Actually, it is a very special day – World Environment Day!


We would like all AEGEE antennae to Take Action in the week around this special date.

Let`s discover and improve our environment … You don`t know how to do it???

Here`s a list with ideas for EDE activities.

And sample Environmental Actions that you can use.

To show you that is really not difficult, we have also brought out 15 steps how to organize EDE.

WE – YOUNG PEOPLE CAN TAKE A LEAD IN PRESERVING OUR COMMON FUTURE, so stop for a moment and watch the following video.


We hope your antenna will be enthusiast to cooperate with us in 2009 –

we have some surprises for those who will participate :)

CONTACT: If you want to apply with your local for the organization of an event in this frame or if you are just interested and want to get more information please write to Olga Daskali: olga.aegee@gmail.com.

Deadline of expressing your interest and sending plans of your event is 20th of May 2009!

You can always turn to SuFu team for help!