Students:Markéta Svobodová

Something about me

Hi, I am Markéta and I am 20 years old, a first-year student at Palacky University in Olomouc. My subject of study is International Development at the Faculty of Science. I'd dare to say I'm a friendly person who loves meeting new and interesting people and cultures, and uses every opportunity to learn something new. Furthermore, I am hopelessly in love with music, books, movies, skiing and traveling. I am excited about this trip because I want to know more about the possibilities to protect our planet. I look forward to meeting you all!

Sustainability

In my opinion, sustainability is a method for the long-term preservation of human prosperity as well as a healthy environment. The fact that the current way of living in developed countries is not sustainable is rather obvious. Living here and now may be tempting in our everyday life, but it is definitely not a good idea from a sustainability point of view. The main problem is that we leave the next generation out of consideration. We try to maintain our high standards of living, but we forget about the consequences of our actions.

Here is my favourite quotation that goes well with this topic: "Because we all share this small planet, we have to learn to live in harmony and peace with each other and with nature. That is not just a dream, but a necessity." (Dalai Lama)

Diary

Day Zero – Magical Maggie gets to meet her field-trip companions

Today I found out I am magical! Okay, not exactly, I made it up, but anyway – it was a great zero-day! We survived the journey to Luneburg without any problems; we got to know each other’s names and opinions on sustainability and we had a delicious dinner! Not a bad start!

Day 1 – Green and greener

After another delicious meal we headed to Luneburg centre and I fell in love immediately! I would live there if I only could understand the damn language. The amazing historical architecture and the green vegetation all around took by breath away. It was impossible!

As the day continued we went to Leuphana university campus and I fell in love even more deeply; it was so neat and modern and they had an organic and delicious Mensa! Definitely something we could use in Olomouc!

After the lunch we had our first lessons. The first one, about the basic concept of sustainability, was good, but as a highlight of the afternoon programme I would declare the presentation by Josha and Anja about sustainability from the students’ point of view. It was interesting because it was related to us as students and we might really use some of the ideas in our own future projects.

Day 2 – Waste under a golf course

Today we started with Dr. Alexa Lutzenberger's presentation on renewable energies. It was a complicated and precise topic, but it gave me an idea, that if there is a country capable of using renewable energies at 100%, Germany would be one of them. They are not only industrious, but they also have quite strong support from the public and a strong economy - two facts that are undeniably important.

The next stop was made at landfill Neu Wulmstorf. The landfill I was going to see was not what I expected at all. It was definitely a surprise of the day. I loved the triple use of the waste and the fact that there are other possibilities to use the space – as a golf course etc.

And last, but not least, was a stop in Hamburg to explore the city. I was quite shocked! I immediately decided it wouldn’t be a place for me to live, but it just was so huge and unusual that I felt like Alice in Wonderland. It was definitely a city to remember.

Day 3 – Top night of the week :)

The third day was mainly about organic food and other products. After a visit to the Alfred Toepfer Academy for Nature Conservation and a short guided walk at Lueneburg Heath we went directly to the organic farm at Baukhof, Amelinghausen. We had a delicious soup there and found out some amazing facts about organic agriculture.

As a fine end of the day some of us went to experience student life in Lueneburg. We met some interesting people and had a really good time!

Day 4 – Top day of the week

We spent another morning in the university listening to a presentation about the Lueneburg Green Party and it only confirmed that Lueneburg is a “green city” and the public support of The Green Party is unusually (at least in comparison to the Czech Republic) strong. After that, we experienced a presentation with my favourite presenter of the week Ms. Annegret Kühne from the NGO DialogN. She talked really enthusiastically and I loved the idea of participation by the public in making the city even greener. I liked it so much that I would love to experience something like that myself.

As another highlight of not just the day but all the week for me, was another stop at the Hamburg housing exhibition. As a fan of all kinds of design I am always happy to discover ideas of how to combine design and sustainability.

Day 5 – Evaluation and bye, bye to lovely Lueneburg

After presentations by PhD students we spent most of our remaining time at the university by brain-storming possible ways to implement sustainability projects in Czech Republic.

The way home was quite long but as we ended up safe and sound in Prague, there is nothing to complain about. And thanks and applause to our driver – he was one of the nicest drivers I had met :).

Evaluation

I am really glad I could spend an amazing weekend with a bunch of interesting people and gain so many experiences and knowledge about sustainability. As I have written, the highlight of the field trip for me was probably the housing exhibition and the DialogN presentation.

I loved the way this NGO communicates with the public and shares the knowledge about sustainability. This is definitely something that is missing in the Czech Republic. Mostly people just don’t have a clue about what sustainability means or they simply don’t care. Maybe if there would be NGOs like this, society would think more about its impact on environment, even though it wouldn’t probably be enough. I guess the problem is our education. Children nowadays don’t know where their milk is coming from, so how could they know about the concept of sustainability? I know it is easy to say, but it would really help if they somehow participated in farming and learned what it takes to grow their own meal.

As the last thing I would love to say a big “Thank You” to Dana and Andrew as well as our guides Marlene and Insa. It had to take a great effort to organise this trip and I am grateful I could be a part of it. Thank you!