Students:Eliška Hašová

Something about me

I'm 21 years old. I study at the Technical University of Liberec. My subject of study is Geography, specifically Applied Geography. I like reading and doing sports. I'm a BIG fan of hockey and I support our team HC Bili Tygri. My dream is to see some NHL games live. I also like going on trips and experiencing new things. And maybe these facts and my love for nature were the main reasons why I enrolled for this trip. I'm looking forward to meeting new people and gaining new knowledge.

Concept of sustainability

I'd already heard about this concept at university in a subject called Sustainable Development. We did not study it in depth. But I understood it as follows: it should be a way how to regulate human activity to maintain environmental comfort and social development, but also to prevent the hazing [?] and exploitation of nature. The result should be that we (as a generation) would leave the natural environment for the next generation in the same(or even better) state in which we "received" it. In my opinion, it is a great thought and it should be applied to every human activity. But like most great ideas, it is frequently misused by politicians (or by commercial companies) for their political propaganda without really knowing what this concept means and how to apply it.

Diary

Day 1

- city tour Lüneburg - interesting architecture, plenty of greenery

- Maik Adomssent's presentation - good intoduction to the concept of sustainability, inspiring "life story" of Dr Adomssent (it shows that anything is possible if we want it)

- oikos workshop - inspiring insight into possibilities of students at university, different and (in my opinion) highly efficient way of studying at university with an emphasis on practice

Day 2

- Alexa Lutzenberger's presentation - useful data about development of various sources of renewable energy in Germany

- guided campus tour - inspiring examples of student projects all over the campus relating to the sustainability concept, students' dedication and initiative, helpfulness of the university which is in my opinion one of the main driving force and also a great motivation supporting students' participation and creativity

- landfill - (for me) one of the most interesting experiences of the whole trip; an example of the fact that the sustainability concept is not just a great idea but also a great business; interesting mixture of several different sustainable projects

- free time in Hamburg - completely different type of city from all the cities I've seen so far -> great experience

Day 3

- Alfred Toepfer Academy - interesting ways of "sustainability education", creative methods; I also appreciated the effort to link the scientific view and the view of local people of the sustainable development of the region

- Lüneburger Heide - beautiful landscape, historical facts that show how human activities can have a destructive impact on the landscape (local level), which thereafter can have an impact on a global level (revolutions, migration)

- Baukhof - for me a very strong and moving experince, a "charging" [?] family atmosphere at the farm, a functioning connection between humans and nature, an example that chemicals aren't necessary for agriculture, a clever system where practically every output of the farm is used

Day 4

- Sebastian Heilmann's presentation - inspiration for our "green politics" and how things should work or progress

- NGO DialogN - I appreciate the approaches to public engagement

- IBA - bunker (good idea how to "refresh" or use brown fields, I appreciated the complexity of the project, minus - too little time to take a look at it

Day 5

- PhD projects - my 1st brainstorming -> great way, interesting for us to see which topics other "students" are working on for their thesis, interesting to hear from others how sustainability is applied in their region

Summary

First of all I'd like to write that the whole trip helped me a lot to understand more about the concept of sustainability. I knew before that sustainability is a broad term, but I literally had no clue about all the interesting ways of applying the concept. The most "shocking" fact for me was finding out that sustainability can be a great business (landfill). Till now, I thought that it is more likely to be used by the non-profit sector and, to be honest, I'm glad that I was wrong :). If I should choose the most interesting experiences, I would go for the landfill and the farm (Baukhof). Both of them were great and I'd say that they are closest to my idea of how the concept of sustainability should be used here in Czech Republic or anywhere else. But personally I was "touched" the most by the atmosphere at the farm, so I'd choose this experience as the very best of the field trip. Why? Because I believe that having such a nice relationship to nature (as they did) is a basic step toward behaving in a sustainable way. I think that nowadays many people have lost this connection and that's the main cause of all the global problems, including the exploitation of our planet. And basically that's why the concept of sustainability has been created. I'll definitely keep in mind everything what I've seen and experienced and I'll try to connect it to all my work (not only) at the university and mainly to my daily life. Thank you a lot once again, it was REALLY inspiring and not just only "from the work side". It was great to meet new interesting people with different opinions who were also willing to discuss them. I hope that we’ll stay in touch.