The first 5 "Sustainable Campus" projects of the Green Office

Origin of the projects

Campus Durable" projects respond to our students' requests to improve the sustainability of of the academic practices . Indeed, these project ideas were chosen by the ULiège student community in a vote in February 2020. The Green Office of the University of Liège proposed 20 ideas that covered various themes of sustainable development: awareness of the Global Agenda 2030, soft mobility, sustainable food, circular economy, ... The students’5 favourites ideas all concern sustainable consumption :

• Sustainable Welcome pack :
• Water4All 
• GSM2Life 
• Zero Waste Kot
• Court-Circuit

The vision that accompanies the deployment of projects in the Green Office

•  Accepting that you are part of the problem in order to be part of the solution ! 
• Through concrete field projects, we work to solve problems of unsustainability and thus generate a positive impact towards more sustainability.
• Knowing that the transition to sustainable development is a path, both internal and collective. The Green Office is aware that each of us has varying and constantly evolving levels of knowledge, know-how and skills on sustainable development. In the current state of emergency, it seems imperative to us to look in the same "sustainable" direction, to set ourselves concrete and measurable objectives in order to progress together towards the implementation of the most relevant solutions for our community (and its descendants), adapted to our local context.
• Building a culture of sustainability. Taken individually, our new practices have a negligible impact overall. However, on the scale of the community of 25,000 students, the impact of small initiatives is growing in magnitude and the change makes sense and becomes exciting. Indeed, through the power of imitation, the example of new good practices facilitates the change of habit among a majority. Moreover, when added together, these new practices build a positive cultural change that is necessary to support the implementation of ambitious policy measures.
• Apprehend the global and act locally. We develop projects at the university by questioning their purpose on a global scale. The framework we have chosen is the United Nations Global Agenda 2030.

Three challenges to be met, with the help of our experts

1. Understanding

For each project, an analysis is carried out to understand the links between the problems and their real causes. We want to treat the problem instead of treating the symptoms.

2. Designing

The solution is thought out both at the technical level (implementation of a new practice) and at the awareness level (communication on impacts). At the technical level, it is a question of finding effective ways to solve the problem at the university level. Sustainability issues are often complex and require discernment and arbitration based on prioritised impacts. To identify the "right solution" among different possible options, a rigorous approach is followed and a life cycle analysis is favoured, whenever possible.

3. Implementing and monitoring

The technical solution is deployed at the university with a critical follow-up on the generated impacts in order to progressively deepen the efforts. The pilot scale can be chosen in the case of the experimentation of a more complex, expensive or uncertain solution, ... In the case of a long implementation (administrative procedures, practical implementation delays, ...), "quick win" type activities will be organised in order to achieve the awareness objectives related to the project.

To meet these three challenges, the Green Office is moving forward with the positive energy of the students and relies on the expertise of our Professors, researchers and administrative staff.

Objectives

For each "Sustainable Campus" project, the Green Office sets itself the following objectives:

1. Raise awareness of the underlying unsustainable problem: information on the causes of the problem;
2. Valuing existing good practices and our local expertise: information on positive solutions already implemented, for example on a pilot scale at university, in and by innovative companies, ... ;
3. To develop a relevant solution, available to all university students;
4. Encourage and support students who wish to adopt more sustainable practices;
5. Measure and communicate the impacts generated for each project.