UNIGREEN

UNIGREEN: UNIVERSITY COOPERATION FOR PROMOTING THE GREEN TRANSITION AND SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES IN EDUCATION AND TRAINING

01/01/2022 - 30/06/2024

2021-1-ES01-K220-HED-000031988

KA2 COOPERATION PARTNERSHIP

346.637,00 EUR.

NATIONAL ERASMUS+ AGENCY (SPAIN)

The transition towards a resource-efficient, circular, digitised and climate neutral economy requires a change in peoples’ behaviour and new skills to think and act green, starting with Education and Training institutions as catalysts of change. Education and Training institutions, through their leaders, professionals and experts, have a fundamental role in: (a) training and empowering the next generation of EU citizens and workforce; (b) generating and transferring knowledge and practices to society in order to solve global problems; and (c) introducing green and sustainable practices. More than ensuring that buildings meet today’s energy standards, the greening of Education and Training institutions needs skilled teaching and non-teaching staff that cooperate towards embedding green and sustainability practices and that lead by example to enable a change in their local ecosystems. Even though there are international rankings addressing the sustainability performance of HEIs, they tend to focus more on infrastructural or quantitative aspects. However, the common vision of the U-GREEN Consortium is that the greening of Education and Training institutions is a process that extends beyond the use of resources; it requires a true transformation of teaching and learning and of how institutions operate, are managed and reach out to their local communities. U-GREEN Consortium members have been working towards promoting, in their institutional ecosystem and among local communities, sustainable development. Despite being at different stages of this process, their share the same mission and a common need to: - Reduce the environmental footprint and enhance the greening of institutions from a transversal point of view; - Promote the adoption of green and sustainability principles and embed such principles in all aspects of HEIs action, including as part of curricula, teaching and learning, and mobility; - Favour sustainability education and the development of green skills, as well as to build the capacities of staff to become agents of change and master the green transition; - Empower Education and Training institutions in acting as catalysts and in promoting behavioural change that supports the green transition among students and the wider community; - Reinforce working networks at EU level, promote the exchange of practices and experiences and test new cooperation models for more inclusive ecosystems; - Strengthen the role of HEIs in generating and transferring the knowledge and skills that will help society to address common problems, such as climate, environmental and sustainability challenges.

Coordination: University of Almería (UAL), Spain

Haute Ecole de la Province de Liège, Belgium

Agricultural University – Plovdiv, Bulgary

Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra, Portugal

Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Poland

University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy

Agricultural University of Iceland, Iceland

Paris Sup'Biotech, France

INCOMA, Spain