Students:Martin Růta

About me...
I'm 36 but still feel ok:) I study in Usti nad Labem - Univerzita J. E. Purkyne. My study programme is Ecology and Environmental Conservation. The fate of our planet is not indifferent to me and I think that sustainability is a way how to preserve it. I'd like to know more and more about technologies, methods and new ways of protecting the environment we live in. And the best way to achieve it is to visit particular places and meet people who are involved in this field. I'm looking forward to meeting new people with similar interests. I really like to participate on any trip because it is always more fun than at the university:) Germany is a good place to go. Everything is well organized and prepared and the beer there is almost as good as Czech beer is;) Hopefully there will be time and energy to enjoy a pint or two :) Hope I don't forget my pajamas:)

Diary
Day zero: Take-off from Usti nad Labem - arrival in Lueneburg :)

Day one: After a great breakfast we started a guided tour about the history of city Lueneburg. We had two professional guides - Marlene Mader and Insa Otte. They showed us the heart of the city and told us many historical and interesting facts. Afterwards, they took us to the campus of Leuphana University where we had a delicious lunch. That was followed by a lecture called Basic concepts of sustainable development presented by Maik Adomssent. The next part of the schedule was a workshop prepared by two students of the local university. Our task was to come up with some ideas how our university could participate in sustainability. We created four groups and presented four ideas - 1. reduce use of elevators in the university, 2. protein (insects) events, 3. cycling for free and 4. fair trade products. Afterwards, all the students looked forward to having a dinner which has surpassed all expectations - we had schnitzels :) After that it was necessary that everyone complies with the drinking regime :)

Day two: The first event today was a lecture about renewable energy presented by Alexa Lutzenberger. It was a very detailed description of the alternative sources of energy used in Germany nowadays and also about the distribution of resources in the future. The following part of the programme was a campus tour at Leuphana university. The next chapter of a day was a very interesting excursion to the Neu Wulmstorf landfill. The use of waste to produce energy, or the use of a landfill area as a space for wind turbines and photovoltaics was explained by Dr. Tilmann Wolfsteller. This was so far the most interesting event of this field trip. Afterwards we went to Hamburg where we spent time as tourists :)

Day three: We started at the Alfred Toepfler Academy of Nature Conservation at Schneverdingen. Susanne Eilers focused on the methods of how to popularize sustainability with the public - young people or local inhabitants - in a non-scientific way. For example, by various games or direct discussions with residents. The most interesting part was her experience with using an interactive sustainability game in a conference with scientists and politicians. We went to Lueneburg Heath afterwards where we heard (from Jan Brockman) a lot about the history of heaths in Germany, especially in Lower Saxony. And also about the management of heathlands in the present day. The third event was a visit to the Baukhof dynamic organic farm very interestingly guided by Ralf Weber. Our visit was accompanied by an unusual lunch with local farmers. So far every place we went to was very inspiring and we can only hope that we will see similar methods guaranteeing sustainability in Czech Republic as well.

Day four: First of all we listened to Sebastian Heilmann, a member of the Green Party. He gave us an idea about the history of the "greens" in Germany and also about the current situation both in Germany and in Lower Saxony. The most remarkable was the allocation of seats of the Green Party which is 28.7% (in Lueneburg). He also mentioned the problem of historical brick buildings in Lueneburg - bricks absorb the heat of the sun during the day and release it at night. That causes an increase of temperature in the town center. That was followed by DialogN - an NGO initiative in Lueneburg. Their goal is to bring various organizations dealing with the sustainability together and to present new ideas to the public. Later we went to Hamburg to visit the IBA - Internationale Bauaustellung. It's a company that researchs new methods in building houses, makes them sustainable using bio materials, alternative sources of energy - photovoltaics, solar thermal energy and also very interesting algae reactors placed directly on the walls of houses. The next visit was in the Energy bunker which will be renovated and used inter alia as a water tank and a solar power system to generate hot water and thermal heat for dwellings in Hamburg.

Day five: The first speaker today was Marcus Falke from The Leuphana innovation incubator which is a project mostly funded by the government and its objectives are - e.g. construction of new university directorate, expansion of research force through attracting international scientists or the growth of employment. He was followed by three students with different PhD projects. Sarah Veltens' project was Sustainable agriculture, Lotte Lutz came to introduce her project of renewable energy and Jana Timm presented her project about sustainable entrepreneurs. Our task after their presentations was to come up with our ideas regarding to all three topics and discuss them with students. This session was followed by "abfahrt" back to the Czech Republic.

Summary
The whole trip was very interesting and enriching, but if I had to highlight and select the most interesting event it would be the excursion to the landfill in Neu Wulmstorf. Firstly, it was accompanied by a very sophisticated interpretation by Dr. Tilmann Wolfsteller who was able to answer all questions regarding the facility.

The entire German conservation process of dumps seemed to me almost perfect. The technologies used at Neu Wulmstorf starting with insulating the landfill from the surrounding environment which prevents penetration of rain water into the stored waste and thus prevents the leakage of polluted water into the ground water. The next step of how get back the "original" landscape from unsightly dump is to overlap an insulating layer of top soil, which is thus separated from the waste and can not be contaminated. Since the area of the landfill is vast, it offers a number of possibilities for its use such, as golf courses or recreational purposes or the planting of Christmas trees. There are currently three wind turbines located on a formed hill which provide electricity for adjacent residential areas. Another positive of this place is generating electricity from gas which is collected from decomposing processes in the waste. All of this forms a complex way of recultivating land affected by the storage of waste. It is an inspiring method which should be used in the Czech Republic where there is a large number of landfills that can be treated in this way.