Recap of the first Planet Atelier (The World Needs You)

Recap of the ‘Planet Atelier’ The VUB students are a big part of the present of our university, but also of our future.

Sustainable actions initiated by them today could have a major impact on our planet. That is why the VUB organised a ‘Planet Atelier’. For this, VUB students, staff members and even some external participants came together on the VUB campus in Jette for a participatory round table, where they brainstormed together and developed ideas on how to make the policy at the VUB more sustainable.

The hosts of the afternoon were Prof. Waldo Galle and Sustainability Manager Rebecca Lefevere. After their interesting presentation of the ambitious VUB sustainability action plan, four main questions were at the centre of the roundtable discussions. How do we ensure a more sustainable education and student policy? How do we ensure more sustainable research and valorisation? How do we implement sustainability in the community? And what about a more sustainable VUB in general? For each question, the participants tried to work out ideas to implement within a short- and long-term vision.

The Atelier created an open, accessible, transparent, and constructive environment for sustainability enthusiasts to offer ideas for future, but necessary, improvements for a more sustainable VUB-policy. The VUB is not immune to change, on the contrary! That's why the VUB chooses a participatory format through the Ateliers, actively involving the internal and external VUB community.

Below is a brief overview of the multitude of ideas. At the bottom, you can read which 'winning ideas' were further developed during the Atelier.

1. Sustainable education and student policy The sustainability team of the VUB wants every student to leave the university with sustainability competencies and knowledge. But how can we embed this objective in our education programmes? A single mandatory course could be an idea, but is perhaps too limited given the number of study backgrounds that exist. So you would have to create a spectrum of different courses that are all related to climate knowledge in the broader sense.

Also, there is currently a gap between what is going on in the research centres and the awareness and participation of students.

With this in mind, the participants came up with the following ideas: Short-term ideas - Short-term programs about sustainability - Professionalisation of professors and lecturers in the field of sustainability. Support is already there: online training modules, physical training days, etc.

- Introduction week (or one day) on sustainability - Different workshops and projects during one week, opportunities to talk about the topic, but also to get to know people and gradually people become interested in the topics o At the VUB, it seems difficult to find a place for sustainability sessions o Maybe it should be organised before the student kick-off and not during - Webinars that are also accessible for students, whether or not in cooperation with international universities

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Client science course for dummies Mandatory projects/ courses per semester Courses more in line with student/ background

Long-term ideas - One lesson per semester of approx. 2 hours (not compulsory, but emphasising the urgency) related to sustainability - Project week by students for all (new) students - One course on sustainability per year for several credits - Projects with social relevance to motivate students - Repetition is necessary: one course is not enough for a change in mentality - Implementing something in an existing course o Students can help identify weaknesses and opportunities in programs and courses o We think the faculties will be open to this because we will constantly be adapting the programs o Students can be given templates which they can fill out and send to the professor to try to make a change. The aim is that good and practical ideas from the most experienced (= students) go back to those who can make them happen (= professors) - Professors should also receive a course on how to teach sustainability topics - Analyze the existing courses and select from them about 4 interesting courses. For this, you need to bring together people who know enough about the bachelor and so on o This can be in the form of group work (green team + students faculty + faculty staff), where they meet or are having conversations as a starting brainstorm 2. Sustainable research and valorisation How do we make research and valorisation at the VUB more sustainable? For example, we notice that we are wary of interdisciplinary research because someone is an absolute expert in one field and a newbie in another. It is important to develop a culture in which it is ok not to know anything about another research area and to make interdisciplinary research possible, especially in the field of sustainability. Moreover, it is important to think about the difference between fundamental and applied research and where research on SDG’s or sustainability belongs.

In addition, awareness is also needed: students and staff should know what is possible in terms of funding for research on sustainability.

With this in mind, the group had the following ideas: Short-term ideas - Focus on interdisciplinary research - In the bachelor's thesis, supervisors from different disciplines, also have bottom-up initiative, which means that they think about sustainable subjects, do not even do the research but make a research proposal - Podcasts

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Campus as Living Lab Special prize for interdisciplinary thesis Living labs, for example, the University of Delft which is using all its students and staff for carbon credits. This is being developed campus-wide. The Dutch government is testing it in Delft to extend it to the rest of The Netherlands.

Research agenda on interdisciplinary topics

Long-term ideas - Showing what is already happening to create the awareness needed for behavioural change - Incentives and support to bring about change - Research agenda on interdisciplinary topics 3. Sustainable community, outreach How do we help as VUB members to create a more sustainable community? How do we connect our ideas on sustainability to the efforts of other organisations, groups, specific audiences, or the general public? That it is not easy to reach the community is also confirmed by the Green Team of the VUB. There is an overload of information, which makes it hard to stand out with initiatives. The participants came up with some ideas to tackle the community challenges.

Short-term ideas - Giving bottom-up input to, for example, the VUB restaurant on why they still sell meat - Fun, social events, parties Long-term ideas - Rooms for the sustainability community to talk and to explore ideas on a regular basis (keep the fire burning) - Database of people with the same ideas - Student council on sustainability - Founding a P-Party together with the The World Needs You team 4. Sustainable VUB A university has an influence that reaches far beyond its campus(es), especially in our global era. Therefore, the role the university can play in sustainability issues on a political level can be big but mainly depends on how the community wants the VUB to take on that role. How far can we, as a VUB, go in our policy? That question gave rise to the following ideas: Short-term ideas - Planning the next Planet Atelier - There already is funding: we need to speed this up and get it for sustainable energy and infrastructure - Invest in SDG goals - University of Luik: behaviour analysis - Lobby for better transport (MIVB, NMBS) and invest in e-bikes o Explore options for a mobility partner

Long-term ideas - Top-down decision not to allow parking on campus (it is a policy), or to make people pay for parking on campus. This would have a major impact - Mobility - Travel ABC VUB - evaluation in July - Sustainable sources of energy, e.g. sharing infrastructure across departments - Water usage: in the pool, technology is used for a reduced amount of water, it is much more sustainable than other swimming pools, it also uses rainwater - Bottom-up Ateliers to be organised by students and researchers Conclusion The Atelier resulted in some very valuable input. We learned that we need more and more a combination of bottom-up and top-down plans and actions to succeed. If we can help support students or staff in what their ideas are, they will accept our help. To activate this, we must react quickly. So don’t wait and start at the beginning of the academic year!

Do you have any ideas of your own? Be sure to let us know via duurzaam@vub.be or dewereldheeftjenodig@vub.be.