Dare to think
Dare to think Sustainable: agro-food-environment, how do we contribute to global solutions?
Sustainability is all over the place. It is a hot topic in any kind of scientific domain. For many people, however, policy-makers, researchers, citizens and students alike, sustainability remains an extremely vague concept. Sustainability is important, it is crucial if we want to safeguard the future of our planet - yes, but how to concretely implement sustainability in our everyday lives? How to make our food, our ways of communicating and travelling, our agriculture, our living and working environments more sustainable? How to pay attention to political, social, environmental concerns, all of which being an inherent part of the concept of sustainability? What about north-south relations and different sets of hopes and aspirations in different parts of the world?
This awareness-raising initiative tried to approach the sustainability concept from different angles, deconstructing the concept by making it more tangible, both on a local and on a globale level. Students were able to reflect on sustainability in their daily lives, to brainstorm together to find global solutions for local problems. Two renowned keynote speakers focused on the broader framework of the sustainability concept, by linking it up to grassroots initiatives as well as to decisions taken on a policy level.
Venue: Lecturing halls Oehoe & cafetaria Block F, Faculty of Bio-Science Engineering, Coupure Links 653, Ghent
Date: Monday 17 October 2016
12h:30 Welcome with sandwich lunch
13h: Introduction and presentations of the organizing platforms and networks (Dr. Annelies Verdoolaege )
13h30: Keynote presentations
14h:30 Presentation of 4 sustainability-oriented study programmes at UGent (4x 10')
15h10: Coffee break
15h:30 Sustainability creativity discussion panels - 10 breakaway groups where students discussed on how to implement sustainability in their daily lives
17h: Plenary session where two general questions were discussed: "What about the vagueness of the sustainability concept?" & "Is it really so difficult to concretely implement sustainability in our daily lives?" (Prof. Peter Goethals)
18h: Reception
Organized by:
- CESAM (Central and South America Platform)
- GAP (Africa Platform of Gent University Association)
- ASEANplus (South East Asia Platform)
- SEDwise (International Thematic Network on Sustainability education)