“A completely relevant initiative!” This is how the Dean of the faculty defined the project by these students. The three-day event focuses on three themes: modes of transport, waste management, and the quality of living spaces. It broadly addresses sustainable development and targets the students, faculty, and administrative staff of the university. The director of the Master’s program ComEDD, Francine Boilot, explains the need to involve administrative staff in this effort: “It is important for the administration to actively contribute to this ‘eco-responsible campus’ in order to motivate students to act for sustainable development. When there are many of us, we feel a sense of solidarity, and thus we act more effectively and in the long term. A collective spark is needed!” The words are out there.
A Comprehensive Action Plan
For this, the Master ComEDD must carry out eco-citizen communication (through awareness and education) but also territorial (to enhance the territory and promote social bonds and ecotourism). All actions aim to make the Carlone campus a model of ecological, economic, and social living. The conference was also an opportunity to organize a game. Each attendee had to write down a feasible eco-responsible act. Carpooling, saving paper,… There was no shortage of ideas, especially after the announcement of a report: an administrative employee produces an average of 100 kilos of waste per year, 80 of which are paper. For Dean, Professor Jean-Yves Boursier, it’s more simply a matter of “citizen behaviors to adopt.” He specifies: “The charter I signed this very morning should therefore lead to practices of mutual respect among us and towards our environment.” This awareness campaign is thus the beginning of a movement that should be continued by the next cohorts of the Master ComEDD and is part of a lasting and constructive logic. Agnรจs Rampal, present at the conference, rejoices. “It’s a remarkable initiative because it places sustainable development at the heart of youth and enables them to be aware of the planet’s future,” she says. Melting ice caps, declining freshwater reserves, pollution of all kinds, such as the deterioration of communal areas, extending to littering… There are many problems to address. The dean is aware of this. At noon on Tuesday, he therefore concluded his speech with a striking phrase: “Indeed, we have much left to do!”
