127 participants and volunteers from 9 different universities and colleges visited Greening the Ivory Tower 19 March 2009 throughout the day.
This symposium aimed to generate synergy and collective ambition between facility management, policy makers, teaching staff and students. Ideally, Wageningen Environmental Platform and Morgen hoped participants would leave this day inspired and armed with concrete ideas on how they as individuals could play a part in the transition to a sustainable university!
As always, there was considerable disagreement between audience and panel members as to whether this transition required a certification system or not, or how sustainable university buildings could be built in relation to the C2C concept. However, there seemed to be unanimous calls for the need for stakeholder platforms that would draw on innovative capacities of students, knowledge of academic staff and practical knowledge of facility staff to turn in-house knowledge on sustainability into reality on campus. Cees Anton de Vries gave insight into organizational learning and demonstrated that the transition towards a sustainable university involves sensitization and personal involvement of the diversity of individuals in the university community. International experiences brought in by Professor Daniella Tilbury showed that when sustainable practice confronts people personally by demanding a change in behaviour, then only involvement and understanding can bring the type of ?culture change? that makes this change acceptable and worthwhile for staff.
WEP and Morgen would like to thank speakers, participants, our amazing volunteers and last but not least the band Delta Dawn for an inspiring day. We have already seen several positive spin-offs and encourage you to keep us informed should these result in concrete action! We hope to repeat and improve Greening the Ivory Tower in 2010. Should you have questions or comments, please contact bestuur@studentenvoormorgen.nl.
The Cookbook for the (sustainable) university is a booklet providing 14 cutting-edge examples of campus sustainability initiatives around the globe. The booklet was recently published by Morgen, the Dutch student network for a sustainable future. The booklet aims to inspire both students, facility staff and teachers to look at the opportunities of a greener campus and the social responsibility of a university as a key player in society.
If not our universities and colleges, then who will lead the way to sustainable practice? Julian Keniry, Senior director at the National Wildlife Federations Youth and Campus programs, USA.
Ordering
Copies of the booklet can be purchased for EUR 5,- including shipping (inside the Netherlands). Please send a mail to info[at]studentenvoormorgen.nl with your address and we will send you a copy. Download the book as pdf
Presentations and workshops
Presentations: Hans van Weenen: Official opening Niko Roorda: On biocapacity, complex systems and transition theory Cees Anton de Vries: On responsibility and organizational learning Daniela Tilbury: On embedding sustainability in the DNA of the University of Gloucestershire, UK Hans van Weenen: On 'sustainity' and the social role and responsibility of the university
Workshops:
Jaco Quist: Backcasting at TU Delft
Arjen Wals: from Green washing to Deep Learning
Niko Roorda: AISHE 2.0 - Sustainability Reporting
Ingrid de Vries: Greening the Campus Rotterdam
Douwe Jan Joustra: Practical application of C2C
Hans van Weenen: Official opening
