Linköpings universitet vinner ”1st eco-friendly attitude”
by jesper.lindmarker on the 20 april 2011, 11:38
International students appreciated Linköping University’s eco-friendly attitude very highly. In fact Linköping University received the highest mark of all educational institutions in the ISB for its eco-friendly attitude. In other words we have the most satisfied students if it comes to how we take care of our environment, besides the online library and laboratories.
- This is really great but also quite unexpected, says the Coordinator of Environmental issues Anders Carlsson.
Concrete examples of the eco-friendly attitude at the university campuses are the recycling stations, free campus bus between LiU’s three campuses, having access to eco-coffee and the reusable thermo mug “green cup”. Furthermore, LiU offers a number of courses in environment and climate issues.
The university strives to be at the forefront of these issues. One of the architects of this effort is Anders Carlsson who began this task in 2002.
- I believe that the international students pay attention to the knowledge they obtain in class, what they see on campus, and the campaigns that we implement, he says.
Besides these concrete examples, Anders believes that the issues students find important depend on their individual perspectives.
- In many other countries, environmental questions are often big and controversial, and result in large campaigns or projects. In Sweden, these kinds of issues are an integrated part of our culture, where it is more natural to take care of your waste for example.
At the same time, he also points out there has been an increase of environmentally-engaged students during the last five years. Students arrange climate weeks and implement environmental certificates for student unions. He claims that this influences the international students.
Linköping University started to discuss environmental issues during the 80’s and 90’s but it wasn’t until 1997 that an environmental management system was established. In the beginning the focus was to implement government regulations – such as management of chemical waste from the laboratories. From that point forward, the university continued with improvements they wanted to do themselves.
- Now we have reached a point where the environmental work is integrated into the organisation, Anders says.
Anders describes that they constantly strive to further increase the eco-friendly attitude at the university. Recently, a project began to offset the carbon generated by flights taken by university employees. The employee’s department pays an “internal tax” for every flight taken, and the tax money supports different environmental or climate projects within the university. The Environment and Security division, where Anders works, is also involved in the planning of the new addition to the Supercomputer Centre, which is estimated to use more electricity than the university’s entire Valla Campus. They are trying to investigate how to reduce electricity usage and how to handle the waste heat that will be generated.
Anders hopes to see a continued growth of the work, and preferably an even greater commitment.
- Linköping’s University has the capability to accomplish much more, and there are possibilities for even better solutions. It would be great if we could make the environmental issues even more fun and exciting in the future.
GreenCup på Politikerutmaningen
by jesper.lindmarker on the 21 oktober 2010, 13:53
För en månad sedan arrangerade Entreprenörskyrkan ett evenemang som gick under namnet Politikerutmaningen.
GreenCup fanns på plats för att visa politikerna hur miljövänligt kaffedrickande skulle kunna vara. Se mer bilder från evenemanget här.
