The last “Monthly Meeting” of the AG Nachhaltigkeit of the year took place on November 26 with around 20 people in attendance, including some newcomers – truly a nice ending to a turbulent 2020!
We were delighted to welcome Stefan Keller and Christopher Weiss, heads of Facilities of the University of Basel, as guests. They presented their areas of work, offered help for new projects, but also let us know about the difficulties of tackling sustainable projects in university buildings due to monument protection requirements. Both of them will help out the project group in order to find and conceptualize new green roofs for next spring. The group is currently working on an application for the Swisslos fund to enable the financing of further roof improvements. For this, the group is planning to create an official association “Roof Greening Basel” and the expansion of roof greening to private houses – wonderful proof of how much the AG Nachhaltigkeit has grown in the last year and how many new efforts are planned for the coming year!
The group responsible for the Sustainability Map was extremely happy about the almost 2000 views of their map on the website – some of which are certainly also due to the article about the project in the Beast Blog, which you can read (in German) here. For the new year, the group plans to expand the map to include shops and restaurants in the cantons of Basel-Land, Aargau and perhaps even the Jura – so, there’s plenty to do after the Christmas season! If you have any additions or ideas for the card, just send us an email. Inputs are always most welcome!
Good news also come from the Ecosia project: After a conversation with representatives of IT from the Faculty of Psychology and the University, during which technical details were discussed, the Faculty of Psychology is now investigating to what extent Ecosia can be introduced as a standard search engine on the Faculty’s computers – the project group is already looking forward to the feedback the IT will give us in January! In order to install Ecosia across the university, an application must be submitted to the Rectorate – as is usually the case -, so that IT can begin with the introduction of the search engine. For this undertaking, the project group has enlisted the help of the university’s Sustainability Office. After a brainstorming session for new projects in a previous “Monthly Meeting”, some members have now officially tackled the two most popular ideas: The “guide for a sustainable student life”, which is due to be fully finished by March, just in time for the Sustainability Week, will offer tips and tricks for students who want to make their everyday life more sustainable in all possible areas of their lives. The second major project, the “info-hub”, aims to collect information on sustainable topics twice a week and make it available to interested people via social media. To do this, the group works closely with the social media team to ensure proper promotion.
Last but not least, Lea from the Sustainability Week introduced us to the sustainable recipe book with vegan recipes with seasonal and regional products they have created which, upon completion, will be available on the website of the AG Nachhaltigkeit in order to increase the reach of the cookbook.
As you can see, things are progressing in the AG Nachhaltigkeit! We are excited to see the many new ideas the next year will bring and how many of them can be implemented as official projects. If you are interested to help a group out or have some ideas yourself on how to make the university and the everyday life of the students more sustainable, contact us using the contact form or attend a monthly meeting – the next one will take place on January 14, 2021.