Sustainability Festival at CEU

Imagine a huge pink and blue baobab tree waiting to be hugged. Imagine colorful wallets made out of recycled boxes. Imagine delicious home-made snacks and a fair-trade coffee bar. And most of all—imagine a bunch of enthusiastic young people from all over the world who summoned their knowledge, creativity and will to make a difference in their community.

On Friday, 8 October, the halls of CEU were full of student-run workshops, an information table, fair-trade coffee and tea provided by Fair Vilag Hungary, and even a three-meter tall tree! The event marked the first-ever Sustainability Festival at CEU, held as a lead-up to 10.10.10, an internationally-recognized climate change campaign. The Sustainability Festival was organized by a group of motivated first-year MA students at the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy, assisted by the Human RightS Initiative (HRSI), who form the Sustainable Campus Initiative (SCI); a student-run on-campus volunteer organization, working toward promoting sustainability amongst the CEU community and on campus.

The Sustainability Festival presented the kick-off event for the Sustainable Campus Initiative, and a chance for the students to update and inform classmates, faculty and staff members about their concerns and goals. An iflatable baobab tree was borrowed from Messzelato Egyesulet, an environmental organization in Budapest. It had spent the summer being transported throughout Central Europe to raise awareness about climate change. Members of the Sustainable Campus Initiative also ran workshops on how to creatively reuse materials, such as crafting discarded tetra pack into wallets. Participants could also test their knowledge on all things sustainable at a so called “green quiz,” and they could share their ideas on what they would like to see implemented on campus in future to make CEU even more environmental friendly.

Watch a short video of the event at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mXV8flDFPA

If you wish to learn more about CEU’s Sustainability Festival or the Sustainable Campus Initiative, please visit http://hrsi.ceu.hu