3.1 Green Office: A Great Number of Small Gestures “We are trying to raise awareness of sustainable development while proposing concrete and encouraging actions,” says Cécile Van de Weerdt, coordinator of the Green Office. “We believe in the power of small gestures. Not from a moralistic point of view, but because when adopted by a large number of people, they initiate a change in culture.” Students, like many citizens, are now faced with the question of meaning. Sustainable development is one of the keys. “The expectations are there. Groups sometimes form very quickly around our proposals. But to really integrate the new generations, we have to align their needs and their reality. We have to go out and meet them in their daily lives, by deploying several pillars : awareness, communication, integration or coconstruction, commitment through action, imagination and hope. Whatever the future holds, hope can be contagious and give people the desire to build beautiful things.” FROM THOUGHT TO ACTION, WITHOUT DETOURS In June 2021, the Green Office won the “Challenge Campus 2030” at the UN. This prestigious prize was awarded for a commitment programme that is unique in the world, consisting of challenges in favour of the climate and biodiversity. “The pandemic context led us to prioritise raising awareness of these challenges, which can be carried out by students wherever they are... With the return to the campus, we are also proposing 30-minute events in the lecture halls to present the issues and calculate everyone’s carbon footprint. In a powerful way, we are trying to make students want to adopt sustainable habits.” Since the launch of the engagement programme, over 40 challenges have been proposed on the engagement platform, Alaya. Currently, more than 2,700 students are registered on the platform. Work is now being done to invite PhD students and staff to join the platform, “including new, more adapted challenges, such as challenges on sustainable finance,” continues Cécile Van de Weerdt. “All this gives me hope. This community of 30,000 people is one-eighth of the city’s population, within an institution that generates important scientific knowledge to be shared. We can make a lot of things happen in connection with our territory.” The Green Office also runs Sustainable Campus projects. Among the actions carried out this year, the Green Office collected 43 kg of old mobile phones, collected 58,000 bottle tops and corks for the Notre Village association, contributed to the installation of 3 new water fountains, organised a sustainable breakfast and a sale of homemade soup as part of the Nourrir Liège festival, etc. The Green Office also developed awareness-raising tools (a map of water fountains, a map of sustainable shops, a decision tree to help understand the main carbon impacts of our food). It has also participated in numerous conferences (such as the Midis du Green Office or the conference on regenerative entrepreneurship by Benoit Greindl) and training sessions (such as the Fresque du Climat) and has offered film screenings - Animal by Cyril Dion and Bigger Than Us by Flore Vasseur. THE RIPPLE EFFECT Among the Green Office’s first students, Sarah Robinet and Laura Germain, who have now graduated, were able to obtain funding from the Walloon Region to work there full time. “Our mission today is to replicate our engagement programme,” says Sarah Robinet. “Since January 2022, we have been bringing together different partners from the country’s French-speaking universities and colleges.” These twinning arrangements make it possible to launch carbon footprint calculations simultaneously in many lecture theatres in the country using the same simulator. “The interest is to create enthusiasm, to generate collective energy. The students do it together and are aware that they are part of a large group. They can follow up with concrete, tailor-made actions. As for us, these twinning arrangements connect us, allow us to share resources, ideas, support, they are an abundant source of motivation.” They also provide us with a new narrative, a way of telling the story of sustainable development in a playful and collective way, as Cécile Van de Weerdt maintains. “Thanks to the recognition of the UN and the various supports we receive (the Green Office has recently been sponsored by Princess Esmeralda of Belgium, the climatologist Jean-Pascal Van Ypersele and the social entrepreneur Runa Khan, who we met at COP27), the campuses are committed to each other and reinforce each other.” THE CALL TO TEACHERS The pride and joy of sharing can be seen on the faces of the Green Office members. The programme, as it exists today, has won them over. “Our desire is to include the community and to co-construct this programme. Let others take ownership of it. One of our methods is to reconcile education and citizenship. We are increasing the number of interventions in the different faculties so that the professors, as part of their courses, propose challenges adapted to their subject. In biology, for example, they work on biodiversity. They learn their subject while looking for sustainable actions that we relay on the platform.” The sustainable marketing course at HEC is equally eloquent. Students are invited to survey the various existing challenges in order to propose nudging methods (a tool designed to change our everyday behaviour, in the form of a discreet incentive). “In two years, 7 dissertations have been launched around our activities. All these pilot experiences can convince more teachers to work with us. Little by little, sustainability will become a collective given.” FIND OUT MORE Cécile Van de Weerdt Scientific Coordinator of the Green Office 25,000 students and 5,000 staff members to call to action: this is the challenge set by the Green Office, a sustainable development platformmanaged, in part, by students since its creation in January 2020 10 | ANNUAL REPORT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AT ULIÈGE | 2021 – 2022 11 | ANNUAL REPORT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AT ULIÈGE | 2021 – 2022
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