All meals vegetarian, water bottles and rain ponchos made from sugar cane and a ban on flyers: new sustainable measures are introduced every year during the Eurekaweek. Because of this sustainability drive, the Sustainability Award was awarded this year to the Eurekaweek board 2022.
The Eurekaweek is the introduction week for new students, which takes place annually in August. The organization of this week lies with the Eurekaweek board. They ensure that the 5,000 new students get to know EUR and Rotterdam.
Acknowledgement
The members of the Eurekaweek board received the award with enthusiasm. "It is really acknowledgement for what we have done. We wanted to take extra steps in the field of sustainability, so we put a lot of effort into it. We have now received that acknowledgement, which is special," says Karst Nicolai, who held the position of Acquisition on the board.
Sustainability has played a role in the organization of the Eurekaweek for some time now. For example, vegetarian meals were the standard during the introduction week in previous years. Nicolai: "But this year we also wanted the partners to participate. The participants also received vegetarian food at the associations and a no-flyer policy applied to all parties."
Consciously choosing sustainability
In addition to expanding existing initiatives, the Eurekaweek board has taken a number of new, sustainable steps. Reusable rain ponchos were purchased, which were not distributed for free during rain showers, but were sold. "By offering them at a low rate, we hoped that participants would be more aware of the ponchos," says Nicolai. "We still had disposable ponchos left over from previous years, which we sold for 50 cents. The reusable ponchos made from sugar cane cost 1.50 euros. Because of the sustainable aspect, we promoted this variant in particular, and as many as 95% of the participants opted for a reusable poncho, which indicates that the new students are also going for sustainability."
Prize money
It soon became clear to the Eurekaweek board where the prize money would go: "We wanted to buy hard cups this year, because disposable plastic cups are a big problem. It was just not clear how much we needed. That's why we started a pilot and we have rented the hard cups for this year. During the pilot we collected a lot of data, and the prize money can be used to purchase the cups for next year."
Sustainability award
Every year the prize is awarded to the best sustainability initiative of Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR). The prize winners were announced during the Opening of the Academic Year on Monday 5 September. The prize is intended for initiatives that contribute to the sustainability goals of the university and consists of an amount of 5,000 euros.
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