Thursday 20th of October - As part of an educational event, Licere organised a trip to Winterswijk for the International Sustainability Congress: Municipalities Growing Greener. This Dutch city won this year’s (2022) European Green Leaf award. This is a prestigious award for local authorities, whose efforts towards the improvement of the environment and their high level of commitment to genuine progress, are praised and rewarded. There was a full-day program from 08:00 – 18:00, therefore we already started our trip at 6:00!
- 8:35 we arrived at the beautiful location of The Storm theatre. Where we get welcomed with a badge and warm beverages.
- 9:00 The host Erno Hannink started with an interactive opening speech.
- 9:00-12:00 Two keynote speakers gave very interesting talks. First, Frank Landman about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) set up by the UN for 2030. Also highlighted the Inner Development Goals (IDG), also set up by the UN, as an important foundation for the achievement of the SDG. Secondly, Ronald Rovers highlighted the need for conversations about sustainable development we rather won’t hear since we think we are already ‘doing right’. Also, other local initiatives were invited to tell about their goals and commitment towards sustainability, climate, energy, and SDG.
- 12:00 – 12:30 there was a very nice lunch available, compliments for the organization.
- 12:45 – 13:00 We got split up into groups. Mahesa and I were assigned to group 5: Ecotour through Winterswijk. This meant that we would pass by sustainable development initiatives (4 in total see: www.duurzaamwinterswijk.nl/ecotour). The mobility mode provided fitted perfectly into the overall theme of sustainability and eco-friendliness: E-Choppers. This made it educative, and also really fun!
The 3 initiatives we visited:
1. Vrijheidspark: here Jan Bent explained to us the elements which were implemented to make the place sustainable, pro-biodiversity, and green. Among others they planted a great amount of diverse vegetation, making it possible to let something bloom during each season.
2. As second we visited a project of the WAM & Van Duren building group. This company focuses on recycling and circular material. We visited a flexible modular office building. It can be easily put together and can easily be moved/resembled somewhere else. All material is, recycled, recyclable, or has a very long endurance, easily to use, and is easy to resemble.
3. The third place we visited was Venemansmolen. There René te Selle told us about the use of the windmill and the materials that were reused.
After the group activities, we gathered again this time in Aalten at the Campus Sealing Valley of Beele engineering bv. This company focuses on sustainability, energy savings, waste reduction, and land use.
- 16:00-17:00 The last keynote speaker of the day was Helga van Leur, giving an inspirational talk about climate change and the need for change. As keyquote: ‘’Today we hold tomorrow in our hands’’
The day got closed with a nice social drink