Challenges to take up the climate challenge at the university

Cars are parked anarchically around the roundabout at the entrance to the university site of Sart Tilman and in the adjacent streets.""There are not enough bicycle parking lots,"" explains Cécile Van de Werdt.The habit of two -wheeled trips still seems little shared by the 25,000 students and 5,000 staff from the University of Liège.""Mobility is one of the aspects we have to work on,"" continues the Green Office Coordinator (Go) of the Uliège.

From this office located in a building with wood cladding, Cécile Van de Werdt and around twenty students reflect daily in the way of enrolling the university in a sustainable transition.""There is an interest of students for the climate cause and a desire to act to limit their impact ... but a questioning about how to achieve it,"" recognizes Ms. Van de Werdt immediately.

""The Green Office was born just before the first confinement,"" she retraces.A year and a half later, its members refine the main lines of action they intend to set up during this academic year.They will be available in five projects (chosen by the student community) and as many themes: waste management, short circuit food, water access, digital and eco-pack facilitating sustainable consumption.

Daily challenges

To connect these projects between them, the Green Office has imagined a series of challenges that it will offer to students throughout the year.Proposals for concrete actions which concern eating habits, recycling of objects, waste management, energy consumption, water, plastics, etc..So many tracks that are adapted to the life and behavior of students.Thus, ""we absolutely wanted the challenges to meet economic and practical criteria; that they are easily achievable and economically accessible"", specifies Cécile Van de Werdt.""The objective is to bring everyone to reduce their individual carbon footprint by half thanks to new consumption habits,"" explains Charline, just a graduate of history and Jobist at the Go.

After calculating his carbon footprint, the student has the leisure to register for the challenges offered to him via a collaborative digital platform.There are thirty over the year and they were thought out by the students, supervised by a scientific expert.""The challenge is placed in a context, we explain the raison d'être, the issues and the encrypted impact of this or that action, explains Anthony.We also give students tips and tricks and alternative solutions to support them in their realization: if they are challenged to consume local food products or buy their clothes in the second hand, we will give them store addresses "", he continues.

""It is also a way of registering the approach in a broader context and creating a link with local actors in sustainable development""

, motivates Cécile Van de Werdt.

After having made them and ""validated"" on the online platform, the student notes the amount of carbon saved on his individual meter.""The collective counter makes it possible to see the impact that can be had as a group,"" adds Judith, student in the Faculty of Letters.Together, the challenges thus aim for a gradual reduction in the annual individual emissions of students of approximately 12 to 6 tonnes of CO2, in line with the objectives of the Paris Climate Agreement.

By 2030, ""the dream"" is that each member of the Uliège community is involved in the decrease in its individual carbon footprint by reducing it by half.""It's a strong commitment program,"" comments Cécile Van de Werdt.The objective is indeed to take the greatest number of students in the wake of ""Go pioneers"".If they are currently 1,300 to have registered on the platform, the GO hopes to reach 2,500 participants this year, or 10% of the population of the Uliège.To do this, he puts in particular on the playful aspect of the challenges, with gifts (eco -responsible or in the form of amounts donated to local NGOs) to the key.""Rewards is an incentive - that students can take or not.This makes it possible to reach an audience which, otherwise, would not necessarily be sensitive to the cause, ""explains Charline.

Immediate actions for long -term effects

If it is essential to ""enroll the actions in the concrete"" and to be able to see their impact immediately, the objective is to have a lasting change in consumption habits.The arrival on a university campus seems to be the ideal moment to instill new habits.""We are more independent and make more choices for and by ourselves"", motivates Judith.

""Be careful, we are not in dogmatism"", defends Cécile Van de Werdt.""We try to give explanations and weight the impact of this or that action, we give tags so that everyone can think for themselves, make their own choices and act with discernment"", explains Anthony.""This is also the critical thinking advocated by the university,"" supports the coordinator of the Go.

“Students embody the change”

Going down the street, youth brought - and embodied - mobilization in favor of climate justice and a transition to a sustainable world.It is therefore not surprising to find these movements within the academic world, in Belgium and abroad, in different forms.

""The Green Office of Harvard has existed for 10 years, with remarkable results!"", Raudes Cécile Van de Werdt, coordinator of the Go of the ULIEGE.

""Students embody the change they want to see, they are a force for change and carry the project at arm's length by carrying collective values and respect for the planet,"" insists Mrs. Van de Werdt.Currently, there are around twenty - including 12 jobists - at the University of Liège, from different faculties and years of study, to get involved regularly.""By acting, we want to create a virtuous circle and take the most people with us, motivates Charline.It is no longer possible not to take into account climatic issues.""

Winner of the UN Campus competition, the ULiège G0 takes advantage of a four -month support to create a toolbox that will reply the program of challenges elsewhere and in doing so, to touch more students. ""Les 500 000 étudiants belges, pour commencer"", ambitionne Mme van de Weerdt.

""Il y a une volonté commune des acteurs de l'enseignement supérieur inscrits dans la démarche, de partager leur expérience et leurs outils"", constate-t-elle. Et d'ainsi créer une ""communauté d'étudiants"" réunis autour de ces enjeux. ""C'est stimulant de constater qu'on n'est pas seul"", insistent les membres du GO.

This one, although addressed to the students, does not intend to act in a vacuum closed.Changing the nature of demand is also weighing on the supply. ""Par nos actions, nous visons à ce que le monde politique et économique se saisisse de ces enjeux et amplifie le mouvement"", espère Charline. Les étudiants de l'ULiège entendent ainsi ""participer au changement culturel"".

In Brussels

ULB and UClouvain in transition

Le campus du Solbosch de l'Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) accueille depuis le 11 octobre deux nouveaux services favorisant la transition en faveur d'une société durable.

Le restaurant La Turbean, géré par l'asbl As Bean, propose chaque jour ""un plat unique à prix abordable valorisant les légumes de saison et les protéines végétales, tout en soutenant une production locale et écologique"".

L'Espace Vélo, cogéré par les asbl Ateliers Roue Libre et Ateliers de la Rue Voot, organise des ateliers participatifs de mécanique vélo, un moyen pour les cyclistes d'effectuer des réparations ""à un prix abordable"". Ces initiatives entendent ""concilier durabilité et accessibilité financière"", souligne l'ULB.

De con côté, l'UCLouvain a inscrit la transition au cœur de son plan stratégique Horizon 600 et propose, entre autres, un Mooc d'introduction aux enjeux du développement durable et de la transition écologique tout en donnant une plus grande visibilité aux cours et aux programmes sur ce sujet.