Students:Kateřina Racková

Personal info

Name and surname: Kateřina Racková

Age: 24

Education: International development studies, Department of development, Faculty of science, Palacký University in Olomouc... (half completed, only a diploma thesis needs to be done)

Interests: advanturous travelling around developing countries, technology, nature

Experience: ERASMUS at Sheffield Hallam in the UK: Environmental studies; voluntary projects in Morocco in 2010 and in Ghana in 2012; teaching English and Geography to students of all age groups ranging from pre-school to high school

My view of sustainability

Sustainability is an ambiguous concept starting with the basic definition of sustainable development invented by Gro Harlem Bruntland in 1987 in the document "Our common future". According to this document, sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the needs of the future generations to meet their needs. This definition is very anthropocentric, therefore I prefer definitions which also contain the environmental aspect.

In my view, all the aspects need to be harmonised. Development should be socially equitable, economically viable and environmentally friendly. Fundamental changes are necessary in order to prevent the human race from extinction as our current development is definitely not sustainable. Non-renewable resources are being depleted, our industry and agriculture consume more energy than they produce, and together with households they produce an enormous amount of waste and pollution and therefore overload ecosystem services.

Humans need to learn how to live within the Earth`s carrying capacity. The best way how to do that is to let us be inspired by nature. The most perfect and sustainable technologies we try to invent already exist! In addition to technological aspects, we also need to change our values and lifestyle from a consumer culture to a non-materialistic one.

Personally I at least try to recycle, save energy, buy ecologically produced food and use things until they break. I am always happy to learn about new sustainable initiatives, therefore I am looking forward to our sustainability field trip to Germany where I hope I can get further inspiration for my efforts to live sustainably.

The best solution is to combine this bottom-up approach with a top-down approach. What the world needs most in the present is political will, possibly a widely respected international organisation or a charismatic leader who will design and guide us through the transition from a consumer capitalistic system to sustainability. However, it may be painful process and many people and corporations will fight against the transition...

Day 1 Sunday 9th June

"What a beautiful day!" This was the first day of the sustainability field trip to Luneburg in Germany. There was a very diverse mix of non-Prague students from different universities across the Czech Republic led by Andrew and Dana from the Environmental Center of Charles University who decided to visit our friendly neighbors to get inspired by their best practices regarding sustainable development. The goal of the field trip was to educate future "leaders" of the Czech Republic! Around 11 AM these future leaders met above Prague main train station and jumped on a minibus which took them to Germany. Their journey was almost eight hours long with a stop in Usti na Labem and a few gas stops in Germany. Students chatted animatedly during the few first hours but then they slowly fell asleep and there was silence...and it was hot! In the evening, the group finally arrived, thanks to the skilled driver, at Luneburg Sportspark, their new home for the coming week. Such an interesting place! Our group was going to live in a stadium :) After a delicious dinner we introduced ourselves in a form of name game. The name game revealed very interesting associations: Delicious Dana, Valuable Veronika, Junk Jarda, Curious Kristýna, Easy Eliška, Jealous Jitka, Clever Cute and Crazy Katie, Dangerous Diana, Magical Meggie, Joyful Jana, Marvelous Martin, Adventurous Agniezska, Doubtful Daniel, Modest Martin and Amiable Andrew. Some of the group members went to sleep and some...could not fall asleep due to snoring roommates...

Day 2 Monday 10th June

"A day with mixed results." To summarize, the second day brought with it charming German-type men, a delicious and healthy lunch at Leuphana University mensa, a participative workshop at the university but also a boring lecture about sustainability in a sub-coma state of mind after lunch when at least half of the students almost fell asleep, a quarter channeled all their energy on trying not to fall asleep and the rest seemed to be engaged :D Unfortunately for the students of International Development Studies there was no new information about sustainability which contributed largely to the sub-coma! On the other hand, some of the students certainly discovered some useful information or were inspired to think about sustainability from a different perspective.

Day 3 Tuesday 11th June

The programme on Tuesday started at the Leuphana University with a lecture about renewable energy presented by Alexa Lutzenberger. The lecture consisted of many unexplained graphs and was based on the unrealistic expectation that Germany is able to cover its energy consumption by renewable resources up to 100%. If all the countries in the world followed Germany it would trigger world wars for minerals and hurt developing countries which is definitely an unsustainable and immoral practice. After the presentation, we went for a campus tour. The second part of the day was far more interesting, actually it was one of the best and most useful experiences during the field trip. The excursion to the Neu Wulmstorf landfill offered a new view on how to use a former landfill. The idea to use a former landfill and its surface to produce energy and provide recreation is amazing. The excursion was guided by Dr. Tilmann Wolfsteller, a real expert who explained how PV panels, wind turbines and gas electricity generation works there. In the late afternoon we visited Hamburg where we enjoyed time as tourists and got to know each other better :)

Day 4 Wednesday 12th June

"The most enriching day of the field trip: a visit to rural areas near Luneburg." In the morning group we visited the Alfred Toepfler Academy of Nature Conservation at Schneverdingen where Susanne Eilers presented the goals and activities of the organisation. The main goal was to involve the public in all sustainability projects as participation is fundamental to a successful outcome. Participation can be achieved by educating children and youth and by involving local inhabitants in decision making through dialogue. The methods the organisation uses for education for sustainability are very interesting. The presenter focused predominantly on games. A truly interactive game is, for example, fishing banks. Personally, I have played this game twice and both times we failed. This simulation game indicates how difficult the situation is to solve in reality...

Afterwards the group walked on a nearby heathland. There they were introduced to the management of the heathland ecosystem which is unique in many ways in comparison with other ecosystems in the region. The soil is fragile and therefore the people living there need to treat it carefully. Sheep play important role in the heathland as they keep the grass short thus contributing to the preservation of the landscape. An enjoyable moment came when the group met a shepherd with his sheep and the shepherd dogs who moved the sheep in a set direction by running around them.

The best part of the whole field trip took place at the Baukhof biodynamic farm where Ralf Weber presented the specialties of the farm. Firstly, the group had a delicious organic lunch which consisted of pumpkin soup with home-made wholemeal bread and baked apple dessert. Ralf and his family and other families rent the farm from the association that owns the land. On the farm, cows and chickens are bred and grain, including spelt, is grown. Furthermore, Ralf explained the principles of organic farming: no herbicides, no pesticides, no artificial fertilizers, and the animals must be fed with the farm's own-produced food :)

Day 5 Thursday 13th June

Thursday morning started at Leuphana University by listening to a presentation by a local German Green Party member, Mr. Sebastian Heilmann. During his presentation students discovered that the Green Party is relatively popular in Germany in comparison with the Czech Republic where the Green Party has been discredited in recent years :( In Germany, the Green Party usually wins approximately 10 to 13 % of the vote and in Luneburg the number is even better: 28 %! There followed a presentation by NGO DialogueS (Dialogue Sustainability) informing the students about the goals and activities of the organisation. Its main goal is to ensure participation off all stakeholders in sustainability dialogue at the local level. In the afternoon, the group visited Hamburg for a second time, although this time students were actively involved in field trip activities. Their task was to appropriately answer questions related to IBA - International Housing Exhibition. As the title suggests IBA is an exhibition of newly built modern houses allocated in one of Hamburg's districts along the Elbe. It is a German attempt to address the most pressing issues of the present: cities and climate change and cosmopolis. Houses use renewable energy sources, methods for saving energy and at the same time they are meant to be affordable for the middle income segment of society. On the other hand, they are still located in busy parts of the city and therefore the inhabitants would have to live with noise and polluted air. It is questionable whether such housing is sustainable for future human health.

Day 6 Friday 14th June

The last session of the field trip took place at Leuphana University where students had the chance to participate in an interactive workshop prepared by local Phd candidates: Sarah, Lotte and Jana. They introduced their research topics: renewable energy, organic agriculture and sustainable entrepreneurship - all at at local level. Afterwards, students discussed some aspects of the mentioned topics in the form of a world cafe. In the very end Dana and Andrew summarized field trip and its financing and Andrew added another task to complete (in addition to this diary). In the early afternoon, the group left Luneburg and during the drive back home students were thinking about what they learned and how that could be applied in the Czech context... Thank you Dana and Andrew for organizing this amazing field trip and big thanks goes to MOSUR and EU for providing finance :)

Topic: Organic farming in Germany and the Czech Republic

Nowadays, increasingly more people are interested in a “green” lifestyle. The desire to return to their roots, back to nature, stems from the fact that people have started to realize that the conventional lifestyle in developed countries is neither sustainable nor healthy. Eating healthy and sustainably produced food is definitely part of the alternative “green” lifestyle.

The most important difference between organic and conventional farming is that organic farming uses methods friendly to the environment, animals and human health! Artificial fertilizers and chemicals such as pesticides are forbidden! Animals can live in a way that does not stress them out, they can live together with other animals of the same kind, with enough space around them, with the possibility to spend some time outside, etc.

When Germany and the Czech Republic are compared, in both countries farmers need to produce crops and breed animals in an organic way for three years and only after that can they gain "bio" certifications for their products. In Germany, it is easier to sell products directly to customers who are willing to buy them despite the fact that bio products are more expensive compared to non-bio. In the Czech Republic, it is more difficult for farmers to sell directly to customers so they have to sell part of the production to shops thus gain less profit. Czech people also hesitate to buy bio as it is too expensive and they don't have the purchasing power to buy bio. Moreover, some of them doubt bio products are more healthy and think they are the same but only with a sticker on them. In both countries, organic farming represents only a few percentage of total production.

In conclusion, the situation for bio products and organic farming is more favorable in Germany. However, in both countries there still remains a long way to go towards sustainable food production.

Evaluation of the field trip

Lectures were all relevant to the issue of sustainability, included balanced topics and led by experts. Balance between university and field lectures was acheived, although I would rather prefer more field lectures to classroom-based ones…

Social life and free time – the second best aspect of the trip beside enriching sustainability lectures. I appreciate we all had a chance to meet new similarly minded people with different backgrounds, discuss, work and play together  I also value the amount of free time when we had a chance to experience Hamburg and Luneburg.

Accommodation was adequate, in comparison with other field trips I have had a chance to participate in, the rooms and sanitary facilities in Luneburg Sportspark were of a higher standard and there was nothing to complain about.

Food could be recommended as it was delicious and I liked the way how it was served: self-service. Due to the fact we could decide about the serving size, there was barely any food left. We ate “green” (multigrain rolls, vegetables and local products) and in a “green” way in accordance with the sustainability paradigm.

Transport by a bus was the only suitable way for trip realisation as we had to move from one place to another almost every day and it would be difficult to do that on time with public transport. On the other hand it was not “green” at all 