Green University in the Czech Republic: Difference between revisions

When considering applying the Austrian model of a carbon neutral university to Czech circumstances, one must take into account the situation in our country. Austria have a long history of putting sustainable development issues into practice whereas Czech Republic has not met many of the stated priorities yet. [7] [8]. The typical university in the Czech Republic is much more dependent on fossil fuels than the Austrian one. In order to make the smallest (and more easily applicable) steps first, we will concentrate on greening the university before focusing on the energy issues most related to carbon neutrality (heating, electricity). As far as these topics are concerned, Austria is well-known for its long and positive approach to sustainable development concept and renewable sources of energy.  

However, we would still like to be the first ´Green University´ in our country and that way set the path for other Czech high education institutions, our project should therefore be first aimed at greening the university by various ´simple´ steps. Possible solutions to addressed problems (or other challenges) will be discussed in the third part of this analysis.  

First of all, the actual agenda should be set. We will set up a team of active individuals (ideally around 10 people) who will create the plan of long-term activities. In order to gain information from successful cases of foreign ´green universities´, we will contact University of Lueneburg (Germany), University of Graz (Austria), Lund University (Sweden) to provide us with information, advice and tips how to proceed. [] [] []

Before we start with a potential campaign, we will investigate our possibilities of obtaining a grant. We shall also discuss it with the rector´s office in order to gain support (financial as well as official patronage). At the moment there is a good oportunity to get a O2 Think Big grant which would enable us to finance the activities in our project. [] For further funding we will consider addressing companies conducting business in the field of renewable energy sources. We realize that in this project we will not focus on energy itself, on the other hand, cooperating with local entrepreneurs may be a very good tool for attracting students of technical studies at the first stage – once the students join the project, there is a potential of them getting a job or a training in those companies).