News: Feb 17, 2021
GUS Sustainability network is a newly launched initiative by GUS (University of Gothenburg Student Unions) with the aim to gather students who want to influence the organizations’ sustainability work. The network consists of students from several disciplines and acts as an advising body to GUS. We talked with the members of the network to hear more about their upcoming plans and hopes.
We are GUS (University of Gothenburg Student Union) Sustainability Network! We started our work in December last year and we have had monthly meetings since then. We discuss a wide scope of questions related to sustainability and the university’s work.
The members of the network are:
• Elin Gunnarsson, student in public administration and former president of GUS
• Karl Kilbo Edlund, medical student, and president of GUS
• Saga Pilblad Hjerpe, student in environmental social science and part of Klimatstudenterna
• Albin Johansson, student in global studies
• Annie Kjellberg, student in environmental social science
GUS has been given the task from its member unions to start a sustainability network to gather students who want to influence the organization’s sustainability-related work. Starting from the framework and goals set by GUS’s member unions, we discuss different sustainability-related issues in a time where the university is going through many big transitions. We believe that the university has the responsibility to take a leading role, both when it comes to reducing its own negative environmental impact, but also in educating and spreading knowledge about solutions that contribute to a more sustainable transition. This means that we work with several areas, and especially relevant are areas such as the implementation of sustainability in education, student representation in working groups and processes, and the implementation of the Climate Framework. Learn more about the Climate Framework here.
Even if the network just recently started, we have already started working with ongoing processes at the university and within the student unions. One important thing we are working with right now is to propose adjustments to the opinion document of GUS. We are right now discussing how the section about ecological sustainability can be supplemented to become more comprehensive and though this becomes more concrete. The document is a summary of how the student unions believe that the university should act or relate to specific issues. The student unions on the other hand represent the interests of the students, and therefore the document must include aspects students believe are important.
Another question we are working with right now is how we can best communicate changes related to the Climate Framework, a framework that includes climate strategic measures specifically directed at higher education institutions with the ambition to reach the 1,5-degree goal by 2030. The framework is initiated by Chalmers University of Technology and KTH Royal Institute of Technology and in 2019 the University of Gothenburg signed the agreement along with 36 other higher education institutions. As a result of this, many different processes are happening at the university, and we want to use this opportunity to involve students in the transition. We believe that one key factor to creating more interest and engagement among the students is to create channels that make it easier for students to follow the university’s climate transition.
We are currently recruiting more students who want to be part of the network. This is a great way to get your voice heard if you want to influence the sustainability work of the university. Through the student unions, we expect to represent all the students at the university – and this makes diversity and wide representation a must for us to be able to complete our task with legitimacy.
They can reach out to hallbarhetsnatverk@gus.gu.se
For more informtion about student activities within sustainability, please visit the Student Sustainability Hub page www.gmv.chalmers.gu.se/english/student