They come to the UT campus from Belgium, Ghana, Italy and the United Kingdom, among others, to attend the summit. 'And the summit can also be attended online', Addo hastens to add. 'We do this for sustainability reasons of course.' This year, the organization of the annual summit is in the hands of SOS International, Studenten voor Morgen and the UT’s own Green Hub Twente, which started on campus in 2020.
Exchange ideas and best practices
Just like the local Green Hub Twente, there are dozens of these 'green offices' worldwide – mainly in Western Europe. They are sustainability organisations that are supported by their own university, run by students and supported by staff. 'It's important to get together from time to time and exchange ideas and best practices,' says Addo, explaining the importance of such a summit. 'By sharing knowledge, experiences and solutions, we can all help make our own universities more sustainable.'
‘Varying degrees of success’
That is the core task of Green Hub Twente, which started at the UT just under four years ago. How has that fared so far? 'With varying degrees of success', says Addo. 'We were certainly able to record a number of successes, but in other areas it hasn’t been a smooth road.'
According to Addo, this is mainly due to how the students of Green Hub Twente are addressed. ‘Most of us are students. We sense that we are not always taken seriously when we have contact with stakeholders. That we are more likely to be brushed off or ignored. Until a member of staff gets involved – and then something can gain momentum.' It doesn't make it any easier when combined with a study, Addo says. 'We all do it part-time, so we have to make the most of the little time we have.'
At the same time, Addo also mentions the successes that Green Hub Twente was able to record. 'Like the start of the Faculty Green Teams last year. As a result, our team has grown from twelve students in the past to 31 currently.' In particular, Addo mentions the 'sustainability dialogues' that were co-organised by Green Hub Twente last year. 'At other universities in The Netherlands, you saw climate activists occupying buildings. Because we got involved and we created a platform for sharing concerns and having good conversations, there was no occupation here. Hopely we can include and address the concerns of our UT community with a more of such platforms’.
Research collaborations
These sustainability dialogues turned out to be the prelude to a decision by the Executive Board to hold the university and its partners to the Paris climate agreement. 'The next step we will be involved in is that, together with the Strategy & Policy department, we will make an inventory of the research collaborations the UT has,' says Addo, who insists on the importance of bringing initiatives together. 'Just as we are doing with other green offices at this summit, we also want to bring together the sustainability initiatives at the UT.' There is still room for improvement there, says Addo. 'We don't yet have full insight into all of the sustainability causes. But that remains our goal as a hub: to bring people and initiatives together so that the UT can become more sustainable.'
