Low Effort Sustainability

To move towards a more sustainable future, the places where we spend our daily lives should be more sustainable. And for millions of students, lecturers and non-academic staff, that place is a university campus. At SOHACK Vilnius Hackhaton, we asked ourselves: can our university campuses be more sustainable? And what aspects of our daily lives should be improved: the buildings we study in, the dormitories we sleep in, the classes we share, the courtyards we walk in, the roads we cycle on, the canteens we eat in or how we interact with each other?

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In a perfect scenario, the answer is probably all of the above. Every aspect of daily life could be made more sustainable. But how? While the answer varies from place to place and must be tailored to the unique context of each location, we believe in learning from examples. And where better to look for examples than in the regions and contexts closest to our own. The European Union has a population of 448.7 million people (source), and although there are many examples of sustainable innovation from western and northern European Union countries, half of the European Union's citizens live in other regions where there is a lack of knowledge about what they are doing. Here are three good practices from universities implementing sustainable solutions on their campuses, varying in size and level of impact, but all relatively low cost and low effort and could be seen as an inspiration to start small:

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FREESHOP at Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic (Website)
A small 6 square metre room in a university dormitory with a separate entrance from the street, open 2 hours a day after lunch. It is filled with things that anyone can take for free, run by volunteers and slowly but surely working towards reducing waste on the university campus. Initially, it was just a space created to help reduce the unnecessary waste that tends to accumulate at the end of each semester when students move out of their halls of residence. Items that used to end up in dustbins are usually still functional and perfectly usable. The paradox is that at the beginning of the next year, new students buy the same items, creating a huge waste of money and natural resources. The Freeshop works on the principles of community sharing and circular economy and is an example of lower effort intervention that helps to move towards a more sustainable campuses.

HEATING SYSTEM at Central European University, Budapest, Hungary (Article)
Some simple but effective sustainability solutions can be created by making changes to the electronic systems we already have. This university has integrated room booking and heating systems. Now rooms are only heated when they are pre-booked and the heating is turned off when they are empty. As a result, the university is saving energy and money, while reducing the problem of wasted heating in empty rooms.

BEEHIVES at The John Paul II Catholic University, Lubin, Poland (Article)

Beehives on university rooftops are becoming more common in urban sustainability efforts and universities are usually located in urban areas. This university has beehives installed on building roofs to create a habitat for bees, aiding in city pollination and promoting biodiversity. This initiative supports ecological balance and can become an opportunity for students and university staff not only educate themselves on the problem of rabid biodiversity loss but also to foster community efforts to create a greener campus.

These short examples are just a few of the options of where and how one could get inspiration for sustainability improvements on university campuses. They demonstrate that impactful changes don't always require substantial financial investments or complex infrastructure. They illustrate how collective action and community initiatives can move us closer to a sustainable campus that everyone can enjoy.

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