‘UU should do more to reach its sustainability goals'

Tamara Luiken and Lune de Rijck, two University Council members representing Lijst Vuur, spent an entire year delving into the way Utrecht University is working to achieve its sustainability goals. They spoke with administration employees and members of almost all faculties, coming across disturbing practices and frustrated workers. Their conclusion: although the university is taking positive steps to make its sustainable goals a reality, there is certainly "room for improvement", such as hiring employees that would be responsible for developing initiatives to achieve the climate goals and making sure that the necessary changes would be actually implemented. Lijst Vuur calls on the Executive Board to do so in a memo titled Positie van Duurzaamheid (only accessible to those with a Solis ID, Ed.).

The document states that UU should hurry up if it really wants to become carbon neutral by 2030, as it says. "The university has nice goals and there are many initiatives related to sustainability, most of them involving big processes like making buildings more sustainable or saving energy. So, the vision is there, the goals are there, but the plan to get there as a whole university is missing. Additionally, they should hurry up to increase sustainability in other areas as well."

Volunteers
A plan has been written in collaboration with UU employees involved with sustainability to improve the organisation in terms of sustainability. One of the proposals is to have the Sustainability Office be the central point where knowledge from the entire organisation would be gathered and where everyone could turn to for help on how to implement plans. "Our point is that the Sustainability Office is comprised of a small team now. If only they grew, they could be the core that would drive sustainable initiatives."

Apart from that, every faculty, management and service should have employees authorised to devise and implement plans. "After all, faculties are all different from each other," explains Tamara. "Currently, each faculty has a Green Team comprised of volunteers who dedicate themselves to sustainability aside from their actual job. No wonder these tasks are not prioritised enough."

Knowledge exchange
The provision of information could also be better. Today, there is barely any knowledge exchange between all the different parts of the university, according to the two UU Council members. Not only should that be better organised but more data should be collected, so that it becomes clear whether UU is actually becoming more sustainable. Last but not least, the university should be more transparent to make it easier for its community to see what is being done in terms of sustainability and how much money is being allocated to this purpose. "The financial documents sent to the UU Council barely contain any information about that."

Tamara adds that the employees who have access to the money allocated to sustainability should not only be concerned with saving energy. "In Vuur's view, sustainability encompasses many other areas. Take tenders, for example. We could look for a more sustainable caterer for our canteens, one that offers more vegan options. Garbage management and the purchase of items are two other examples of areas where there is room for improvement. The university is already doing a lot but it should only collaborate with the most sustainable companies."

Surprised
The members of the Executive Board were caught by surprise when the memo was discussed by the sustainability committee within the University Council, back in June. UU's President Anton Pijpers said that the board shares the council's intentions, which is shown by the fact that the allocation of money to strengthen the Sustainability Office last year (link only available to those with a Solis ID, Ed.) and the decision to transform the dedicated section of Real Estate & Campus into a focal point for sustainable initiatives and the provision of information. "That memo is from July last year, when we earmarked additional money for the Sustainability Office to hire three full-time employees," stated Pijpers. However, the memo in question has never been sent to or discussed by the University Council. "Something must have gone wrong."

UU's president stressed his sympathy for Lijst Vuur's memo but noted that "we can't tell faculties to come up with certain positions. That's out of the Executive Board's scope." The same goes for employees' initiatives to make the faculty more sustainable, so both Pijpers and UU's Vice-president Margot van der Starre said they cannot do much in that regard. Van de Starre: "We can't force faculties to allocate money to the purchase of more sustainable freezers, for example." She was referring to a proposal from the time when UU began its campaign UU Turns the Switch, a reaction to the rising prices of gas and electricity following the war in Ukraine.

The members of the University Council are astonished that the memo about the Sustainability Office never made it their way, which is why they inquired the board about the possibility of accelerating the process of making the university more sustainable by honouring bottom-up initiatives. Gert Volkers, an employee member representing the Vlam party: "There is a lot of knowledge about local subjects and it seems really hard to implement changes in that sense." Tamara added: "Many people feel like a lone wolf." To which the Executive Board underscord that they cannot force the faculties to adopt certain measures. "All we can do is run awareness and communication campaigns but we hope hat the faculties will live up to their responsibilities. The Executive Board shouldn't be paying for every single thing."

A sustainable way
Although Lijst Vuur has been interested in sustainability for a while, students have really chosen it as their spearhead this year. The topic has been discussed in the FHI committee (a Dutch acronym that stands for finance, housing and ICT). Lijst Vuur suggested adding a D to the acronym (representing duuzaamheid, the Dutch word for "sustainability", Ed.) to underscore that sustainability is just as important to the university as the others. 

As part of this committee, Lijst Vuur proposed to plant trees in the Utrecht Science Park as a graduation gift for students. That way, biodiversity on campus would increase. They have also been working behind the scenes, such as when they got involved with transforming the backyards of the university's buildings in the city centre into living labs — a proposal in collaboration with Annemieke Hoogenboom from Vlam. They're investigating how these gardens can become pleasant places for outdoor classes and for students and employees to enjoy. Last but not least, they have managed to make the university introduce coffee machines with plant-based milk. "But that should be attributed to our predecessors. It took two years to get it done."