Students:Martin Pirkl

About me
I am studying International development studies at University Palacký in Olomouc. This discipline is provided by Department of development studies at Faculty of science. I´ve always been interested in problems connected with poor state of the environment, maybe cause I am fisherman and I´ve grown close to the water and forest.

I´m just finishing third grade, by the way I´ve written bachelor thesis about the issue of overfishing, and especially this industry is managed unsustainably. In the future I´d like to do something meaningful to be able to see one day that my work wasn´t useless.

I look forward to our trip to Germany, couse I like this country and I´ve never been to north part of it. I´ve heard that it´s nice there :) I also believe that it will be important experience, which could broaden my academic horizons. Last but surely not least I look forward to meet new friends and collegues!

My view on sustainability
From my point of view it is life in harmony with nature, so that all the positives, of which we take for granted in our lives, would enjoy also another generations of people without diminishing natural resources. I think it is important to realize that it's not just about us humans and our well-being. I could not live a happy life in an unhappy environment.

Day 1
After quit long journey which was without any complication we arrived at about half past seven p.m. to our destination - old university town Lüneburg. Then the tasty dinner was served and we were ready for our opening session. We played a name game, which was very good way to help us to get to know each other well. After that there was discussion when we offered our point of view on various environmental issues. Due to clean showers and comfortable bed the first night was pleasant.

Day 2
We woke up to a beautiful sunny day. Delicious breakfest was ideal preparation for quite demanding program. After breakfest we went for a walk to the city center which was beautiful experience due to the rich historical background of Lüneburg. Then we continued to University campus, where we had lunch in organical mensa. After only half an hour, at 12:45, we started our first lesson about basic concepts of sustainable development, the lecturer was Prof. Maik Adomssent. After short break we had a workshop with representatives of student organisation OIKOS. The lecturers briefly introduced us the organisation and after that there was space for our new ideas. We worked out our projects in the small groups and then presented the final form to our collegues. It was very useful experience and the cooperation and communication with our German collegues was great. After the end of this session followed well deserved dinner and relaxation.

Day 3
The plan for Tuesday was divided into forenoon and afternoon part. Program started with presentation about renewable energy for the city and region of Luneburg and also about the whole country and its strategy of sustainable development. Very interesting was also the guided campus excursion, our guide Irmhild Brüggen was sympathic and patiently answered our questions. After lunch followed visit to landfill Neu Wulmstorf. I liked this part of the program very much, the presentation and also the illustration of wind mills etc. was very beneficial for everyone of us. It was mainly due to professional and friendly approach of Mr. Tilmann Wolfsteller. The visit of Hamburg was for me a great experience and I am very pleased that we actually went there. I have never seen any similar city like this before.

Day 4
We woke to another beautiful morning and after breakfest went to Schneverdingen. After presentation which was made by Susanne Eilers we rode to Luneburger Hiede, where I liked the most herd of sheeps and discipline of the sheepdogs. Our next destination was the organic farm Baukhof in Amelingausen. Quite inspiring was approach of children who jointly thanked for the meal. It was very surprising and heartwarming! And by the way the soup was delicious. Then followed the visit of organic agriculture farm and after that very good timed coffee and engaging interview with Mr. Weber. There was also organic shop which was good source of nice presents to buy.

Day 5
About this day I liked the most another visit of the city of Hamburg. Marlene´s comments on the innovative residental buildings enriched me, because she explained me a lot of things not only about the city housing strategy. Very inspirational was house with the tank full of water with algae on the wall. The city representatives are trying to make also the second bank of the river Elbe thrive and this area with innovative buildings is one of proofs. Our last stop in the city was energy bunker and it was quite monumental. I am pleased that there are PV panels instead of cannons :). At the end of our program between the raindrops we summarized our findings of IBA. A farewell evening was rather quiet, but funny and nice..

Day 6
The last day of our trip was a little bit sad, because we had to leave and me personally enjoyed all week very much. Nontheless we had schedulled lecture on the Leuphana Innovation Incubator and discussions with three PhD students, Jana Timm, Sarah Velten and Lotte Lutz. The three students were awfully sympathic during the discussions in small groups. I like this kind of debates, which are conducted between a few people rather than that in bigger groups. In addition to that, Jana, Sarah and Lotte were probably equally nervous as me :). After the final reflection and feedback we had to leave really beautiful city of Luneburg. After long and quite miserable journey I arrived home exhausted, but fully satisfied.

FINAL EVALUATION
I liked nearly every part of our´s trip. However what I enjoyed and what I appreciate the most is the visit of landfill in Neu Wulmstorf. Our guider in that complex, Tilmann Wolfsteller was greatly symphatic and willing to explain and show us everything what we wanted to. I was pleased to see how can everything work, if there is professionality and will to do so. One of the common landfills in the 80´s was sealed with several layers of different composition so that the leakage of wastewater into the underground of the landfill could be limited to a minimum. The rainwater which soaks to the soil also cannot penetrate into the landfill. The experts also took into consideration natural process when bacterias decompose the organic waste. The outcome of this process is actually gass, which can be and in the case of Neu Wulmstorf really is drained through the pipe and subsequently burned. Photovoltaic panels and wind mills are also components of this site, and ensure that the compound is completely energy independent. I think that this idea, which came out from the initial public survey was the best one (there were also proposals like create a pound for fishing or playground for children). There is also need to stress the fact, that this project is provided by private company. This proofs the bottom-up approach to sustainability movements in Germany.

Definitely there are prevailing positives over negatives when it comes to summary of aspects of the trip. I´ve tried to find out something which was not so good and it was really hard. I appreciate enthusiasm of all participants, especially our leaders. Their endeavour accompanied by efforts of all lecturers, guides and coordinators resulted in very enriching and inspiring trip. Therefore I would not like to criticize any point of the agenda. Yet one thing, which comes to my mind is non-fuctional air conditioning in our minibus. That was really pain in the ... :) Maybe one more thing, which crosses my mind is that I would prefer to work in smaller groups of people and have possibility to talk with lecturers within this groups, because I am little bit shy when it comes to talk before more people. I mean the Monday session, when we worked on the project was good and so the Friday lessons with PhD students.

All in all I appreciate this one week experience, I have met new great people, saw beautiful places and gain new motivation to continue with the study of sustainable development. However I feel that I have huge deficiency in my knowledge of some areas which is on the other hand probably the biggest outcome of this trip, for I now have better illustration, what I should be aware of. This trip also uncovered my language imperfection.

I would like to take part of the trip to Graz in September but I will be in Netherlands, where I´ll be improving my knowledge of sustainability and my language skills, my two main gaps, which our trip to Luneburg uncovered :).