One of the important parts of the ETUR 2023 programme at MU took place in the university canteens. For seven working days – from 18 to 26 September – the canteens presented all aspects of sustainability, such as seasonality, regionality, waste and awareness. They focused on promoting the Webkredit app, which has the ambition to minimise food waste, introduced the Five Principles of Responsible Catering and most importantly: reversed the proportion of vegetarian/vegan and meat dishes on the menu. “Participating in the pilot year of the pan-European initiative served to gain valuable feedback not only in terms of interaction with customers but also to identify internal processes to effectively monitor the implementation of sustainable development principles,” said Tomáš Kala, Head of Canteens at Accommodation and Catering Services.
The road to sustainable eating does not end at Masaryk University. The ETUR menu is loosely linked to the seasonal “Pumpkin” menu and the results of ETUR 2023 will be taken into account in the optimisation of the MU canteen offer in the future. “The dishes from the special ETUR menu that were the most successful based on the portions taken will be included in the permanent menu of the university canteens. We will also continue to take into account the specific differences and demand at each canteen that have been identified,” said Tomáš Kala, adding that the challenge remains to find ways to motivate customers to order food through the WebKredit/MobilKredit app in keeping with streamlining food preparation and minimising waste.
The oldest international environmental film festival in Europe, EKOFILM, co-organised by the Faculty of Social Studies as part of the ETUR 2023 programme, was well received by students, as were book and textbook exchanges organised by the Faculty of Pharmacy, the Faculty of Economics and Administration, the Faculty of Sports Studies, the Rector’s Office and the Bohunice campus.
Interesting events included the presentation of the reconstructed Veslařská Sports Complex, the Fourty years of RECETOX exhibition and lectures by experts Jiří Marek and Martin Dvořák from the Institute of Computer Science on the topics of How sustainability in digitalisation can save time and money and How to use data for excellent university work.
Sustainable development activities also included a meeting between the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and the students of the Paramedic Practice programme in the category of Social Responsibility, who were awarded for their participation in the response to an accident on the D2 motorway.
“Although Masaryk University’s participation in the European Sustainable Development Week was in its pilot year, there was a wide range of events organised at MU faculties and departments. It demonstrated a clear goal: to show that we care about the future of the world we live in,” said Monika Jandová, Vice-Rector for Personnel Policy, Lifelong Learning and Sustainability.
This year’s edition of the European Week for Sustainable Development took place from 20 to 26 September 2023. However, in order not to be unnecessarily restrictive, any event in any area of sustainable development, whether of environmental, economic or social character, that took place between 18 September and 8 October 2023 could be registered for ETUR. The Czech Ministry of the Environment, which coordinates ETUR events in the Czech Republic, tried to motivate as many people as possible to participate – not only by attending the events but also by taking the organisational initiative. Masaryk University took part in the initiative for the first time, thanks to the UNILEAD II project, which brings together Czech universities in the field of sustainable development.