Project

Sustainable Project Network

The Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA) & Hogeschool van Amsterdam (HvA) have the ambition to become the most sustainable universities in terms of resource management and want to adhere to the Amsterdam goal of becoming the frontrunner in the circular economy by 2024.

During the last two years the Waste Management team of the UvA & HvA has initiated many, many student-led projects to research and design what the new Waste Management process should look like. A lot of these with much success and great results. However, The students who led these projects often do not have time or intentions to follow up on these results and these end up in a rapport. A lot of these projects could really benefit from the knowledge that earlier or parallel projects uncover.

Sustainability projects like these are happening all over the UvA & HvA, many of these projects are not aware of each other. Rather than just doing these projects for studies only, we started to foster a culture of doing these projects to further the university sustainability agenda and make an actual impact.

This project resulted in a collection of concepts were developed to support the communication of the sustainability community from a variety of angles:

  • The Green Corner: A physical point of contact dedicated to sustainability that provides the opportunity for all the members of the university to engage and get involved in the community easily.
  • Sustainability Features: Digital community platform features that address the main challenges the members face when it comes to getting involved in the sustainability community and allow them to take action. These features would be available in the physical display at the Green Corner, as well as integrated in the upcoming Green Office website.
  • Strategy: We also came up with a list of communication strategies and recommendations that would help the HvA to foster its sustainability community. One example is the organisation of events dedicated to the topic. The Sustainability Week creates the space for awareness and co-creation and engaging activities, stimulating a community around sustainability.

For more in-depth reading about our design process and progress, you can check the Medium publications!

This project focuses on the Sustainable Development Goals:

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