Colours of AEGEE
Key2Europe 2019-2020
Sustainable Summer Universities Written by Maartje Zaal Member of AEGEE-Eindhoven, Sustainability Committee This year, the topic of sustainability gained more momentum than ever! At Autumn Agora Salerno, the Sustainability Manifesto and the new Strategic Plan were signed. The Strategic Plan includes new organisational improvements related to sustainability and the new Focus Area on Climate Emergency. This agora also gave birth to the Sustainability Committee. Before that, the summer of 2019 was already full of sustainability, thanks to the Summer Universities! Preparation by the Society and Environment Interest Group (SEIG) The SEIG team worked hard to prepare a set of workshops on topics ranging from Introduction to Sustainability, Circular Economy and to Change-Making, Minimalism and Sustainable Cities and made them available for all. As a result of SEIG’s preparation, as well as that of others, there were in fact seven Summer Universities on Sustainability! For example, AEGEE Kraków & Wrocław cooperated with the Civic Education Working Group to train Earth’s Superheroes!
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SEIG’s trainers were Maartje Zaal and Diederik de Wit. Diederik gave a workshop on Circular Economy, next to a beautiful lake in Estonia, during the legendary Summer University of Tarthoven. After that, he travelled to Slovenia as a trainer of the “SLOw Summer Humor” SU, organised by AEGEE-Ljubljana & AEGEE-Maribor. In this stunningly beautiful and green country, the topic of sustainability fitted perfectly and inspired the participants. The sessions ranged from introduction to Sustainability, to the Fashion Industry, to Changemakers in Society. Besides the more serious sessions there was also time for more leisurely activities, such as a sustainability pub quiz and theatrical performances on a chosen sustainability related topic Smells Like Green Spirit Vol.2 Maartje went to Croatia to be a trainer at “Smells Like Green Spirit vol. 2”, which was a huge success. The organisation was great and sustainability was also integrated in other parts of the Summer University, besides
