Towards a sustainable university, step by step and with as many people as possible!
Here we present examples of sustainability actions that go beyond the general guidelines. We hope they will inspire you. We are experimenting with more far-reaching measures and are gradually preparing to include them in policy.
Join one of your colleagues' initiatives!
Sustainability in the faculty policy
Faculties incorporated various actions into their operations to strengthen and enrich the sustainability transition. These are evaluated every year.
These two have already been recognized:
The BW faculty organized a session for teachers, educational support staff and students on climate-related emotions around these questions: As a teacher, how do you remain objective when teaching about the state of the climate, planetary boundaries, tipping points, etc., which seem to become more dramatic every year? What tools do you offer your students to help them see opportunities in this and get to work? How do you deal with the diverse reactions of students to this?
The Humanities Academy, a platform for Lifelong Learning at the Faculty of Arts, appointed Nic Balthazar as curator this year. 'Regeneration' was the common thread running through the activities. The climate crisis is not merely a scientific or natural issue that requires technological solutions. It is also a cultural crisis that demands imagination and new narratives. The crisis of the modern worldview makes the mission of cultural and humanities scholars in the fields of education, research and social services all the more important.
More (and more ecologically valuable) greenery on campus
We want to preserve and enhance the existing greenery and biodiversity. Look around your campus and discover opportunities.
Maybe we can tackle them together with you?
The Faculty of Bio-engineering has already organized two BioBlitzes. Once on the Coupure campus and once on the Gontrode campus. This is how they mapped all the fauna and flora.
The Faculty of Veterinay Sciences went looking for opportunities to manage the greenery on campus more ecologically. They collaborated on the ecological green management plan.
The faculty of Sciences set up a biodiversity trail on the Sterre campus.
Sustainable catering
Sustainable catering focuses on plant-based food, with limited space for dairy products, meat, fish and eggs.
Who goes the extra mile?
Ask about preferences when inviting guests? Then make the vegetarian option the norm, offering the option of choosing meat if people insist on it (in a similar way to where people are now asked about vegetarian or other diets).
In your catering, always apply this norm: 60% plant-based, 20% vegetarian and 20% meat or fish with a low footprint and with consideration for animal welfare.
PhD students from the Department of Psychoanalysis and Counselling Psychology receive EUR 400 for organising a doctoral reception if they commit to being veggie and using organic products.
Different groups always go for 100% veggie or vegan when catering.
Sustainable events
Are you organizing an event? With some creativity you can show that you take sustainability to heart! Make your sustainable choices visible and known, so they can inspire others. Here you can find our guidelines.
Need ideas?
The Department of Orthopedagogics offers only reusable and environmentally friendly items in the goodie bag (e.g. pencil instead of ballpoint pen, water bottle instead of key ring) and allows participants to compose their own goodie bag, so they only get things they will use.
The FBW developed a sustainability monitor to encourage people to organise their events in a sustainable way, as well as for faculty to see where any bottlenecks lie and address them.
Sustainable Travel
With the sustainable travel policy, we no longer fly if we get somewhere with a train journey < 8h, we take the lead in international research cooperation and make agreements on sustainable mobility, and a contribution of 50 EUR/tonne CO2 is collected for flights that we have to do anyway.
Who is also shifting this 'standard'?
The department of Psychoanalysis and Counseling Psychology wants to do everything that is under 10h by train.
The department of Orthopedagogy opts for sustainable mobility choices in educational activities and discusses this with its students to make them aware of the sustainability issue (e.g. by train to the location of the study trip, by bike to the internship).
Sustainable mobility
With the sustainable mobility policy, we want to reduce the number of car trips and convince people to take the bicycle or public transport.
Who has some good 'tricks'?
On campus Coupure, campus Dunant andcampus Sterre, parking lots were transformed into green space. Students and staff came to plant with them! That makes the loss of parking, or better the shifting of cars to something further away, a lot more digestible.
On the Dunant, Ledeganck and Blandijn campuses, the car parking lots were (partially) converted into bicycle parking lots.
Part of the parking lot of the Gontrode campus is being made greener
Fair Trade
Rice, bananas, coffee, tea, etc. are Fair Trade at Ghent University and we are using awareness campaigns by and for students to draw attention to the importance of Fair Trade.
These faculties took the initiative themselves:
The library of the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science gave a voucher for a purchase in the Oxfam Bookshop Ghent with every loan.
The PPW faculty organized a workshop on upcycling/downcycling an eco-object: a seat block, a stool or a lamp.
The LW and BW faculties organized a fair breakfast.
The WE faculty organized a Cook Off in which dishes from VLIR-UOS countries and other countries were prepared live and fairly.
Get rid of disposables at drink points
Disposable cups are offered at coffee vending machines. Materials that are as recyclable as possible are sought, but usually you walk away with such a cup and dump it in a trash can somewhere.
Can we get rid of those?
The faculty of RE and DI greatly reduced its vending machines.
The Department of Conflict and Development Studies bought some 60 'Join the Pipe' water bottles as a welcome gift for the staff of the department.
The most sustainable purchase is not a purchase
We look for sustainable products and look for responsible ways to dispose of our stuff.
But perhaps we should also question our own purchases more often?
There are now freegiving cabinets in many places.
Laboratories produce a lot of waste. In the UGent-VIB research building, artist Frank Liefooghe set to work with the weight equivalent of a day's waste... The result: a work of art consisting of 180 kg of waste in the inner garden!
The Translation, Interpretation and Communication department chose refurbished office chairs. DESKO (in Dutch) did this for them and they received a 4-year warranty.
At the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Science, the meeting areas were furnished with materials from the thrift store.
The Green Office worked together with NNOF (lockers and tables made from discarded office materials) and Labeur (in Dutch) (wooden shelves).
Clean auditoria
Auditoriums are often very dirty after a day of lessons. It helps if teachers remind students of their responsibility (and of the waste islands).
In faculty PPW they made an image for the information screens and played a video at the start of the lessons (available on request via milieu@ugent.be)
Less disposable materials and fewer reagents in the labs
Together with researchers, we are looking for ways to reduce disposable plastics, reduce volumes and use less reagents and energy during lab work. My Green Lab is a very nice guide. These examples of our UGent'ers might provide additional inspiration:
The Centre for Medical Biotechnology (CMB) uses a farewell checklist for people who leave CMB. It should be checked that their used refrigerators and freezers have been cleaned, samples that need to be stored should be inventoried, etc.
The Department of Translational Physiology, Infectiology and Public Health at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine collects packaging materials for a company that has to ship a lot by mail.
The sterilization cloths in which surgical sets are packed are no longer residual waste! The Faculty DI collects these polypropylene cloths for Mozaïek vzw , a daycare center for people with special needs. They remove the labels in order for the polypropylene to be recycled.
Fewer ultra-freezers, smarter use
The presence of many individual freezers consumes a great deal of energy. A -80°C-freezer consumes yearly 3000 à 3500 kWh (comparable to the energy consumption of an average Flemish family). Therefore, we should use ultra-freezers more together, clean them regularly and consider whether a higher temperature is possible. Follow the guidelines and see how other groups are doing.
In the Department of Pathology, Bacteriology and Poultry Diseases, they reduced the temperature of their ultrafreezers from -80°C to-70°C.
he faculty of Bioscience Engineering organized itself so that there is 1 backup ultra freezer for the entire campus. In this way, a possible breakdown can be dealt with or it can be used when another ultrafreeze is being cleaned out
Did you do something yourself that others could learn from?
