Climate Science Student Council

National Student Action Day 2016

Poster for the "Nationaler Aktionstag" 2016 depictinc the planet earth in front of a blue background and containing information about location, time and date

Sustainability – the ability to continue a defined behavior indefinitely (Twink.org 2014).

 

Educational institutions such as universities play an important role in the community: to transmit knowledge and values and to shape the future members of society by acting as role models. As such, one of the key sustainable development goals of the United Nations is to ensure that by 2030 “all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development” and where best to start than at Uni? Although the term sustainable development is ambiguous, the ability to continue a defined behavior indefinitely should be the goal of an enlightened society through the three pillars of sustainability: social, environmental and economical sustainability.


In light of this, the VSS/UNES/USU (Verband der Schweizer Studierendenschaften, Union of Swiss Students) and the VSN/FDD/FSS (Schweizer Verband Studentischer Organisationen für Nachhaltigkeit, Swiss Student Federation Organisation for Sustainable Development) have worked on a position paper (Forderungspapier for Sustainable Development) for sustainable development in Swiss universities which was presented to all Swiss universities on March 7th 2016 during the Swiss Universities Sustainability Action Day. This was an important event occurring in all universities throughout Switzerland and the SUB UniBe organized the event in Bern. The CSSC, along with other organizations such as BENE, Young Greens and SYFC participated. The position paper highlighted several aspects, along with many other recommendations, where everyday university life could become more sustainable. These included: infrastructure, mobility, food, waste and energy. The position paper was handed over to Doris Wastl-Walter, the Vice-Rector for Quality at the University of Bern who warmly welcomed the initiative. 

 

Position Paper: Positionspapier_FR.pdf (PDF, 199KB); Positionspapier_DE.pdf (PDF, 337KB)

Picture of a group of students presenting the Position Paper for sustainability at swiss universities
SUB

The members of the CSSC were the perfect candidates to promote the importance of sustainability during the event as a sustainable way of life supports mitigation against global warming and climate change. On the day of the event, the CSSC hosted a sustainable food stand in the Unitobler Mensa Foyer.  We promoted several aspects of sustainable food consumption:

  1. Food and climate change
  2. Food and water usage
  3. Food and land and energy resources
  4. Local and seasonal foods

But that’s not all! Foodsharing collected for us left over beverages from the Uni-Markt which we were able to hand out to students for free. And even more! CSSC members and friends also turned to the kitchen to bake cookies devoid of animal products to promote alternative cooking. The CSSC's participation in this event went towards fullfilling one of the CSSC core aims which is to promote the importance and understanding of climate change.

Needless to say, the event was a yummy success! Check out Climate World for more tips and info on how you can reduce your food carbon footprint.