For the third year running, the University is organising a Sustainability Week in cooperation with the City of Lund, the students, the Swedish Universities of Agricultural Sciences and other organisations and companies. The programme includes some 50 activities, from lectures and panel debates to workshops and exhibitions.
“In Sustainability Week we join forces to consider both serious issues and hopeful future visions”, says Jenny Hansson who is the project manager for the week at LU.
Focus on the global sustainable development goals
This year the theme is Transforming our World – with a focus on the global sustainable development goals. The Sustainability Week programme covers four different transformations – how cities need to change, how food production needs to change, sustainable working life and finally how stories of sustainability can reach and truly influence people. As people, we long for stories with charismatic heroes, straight forward motives, clear cause and effect – how can we unite this with a scientifically correct story? This last theme takes up, among other things, the ambitious communication of Agenda 2030 and the UN’s global sustainable development goals, and how it has succeeded in creating a great impact.
Sustainability Week has more exhibitions than usual and one of them is entitled Carbon Ruins. It is conceived as a museum of a vanished era, the fossil fuel era, and the objects we have left behind us. You can see, for example, bonus point cards for Freenet Flyers, artificial grass and the book Miss Smillas feeling for snow – a novel about the fossil era.
Innovative sustainable houses under construction
One breakfast seminar is about the sustainable and innovative building project that is underway in the Brunnshög district of Lund. LKF will present a passive apartment building under construction with associated electric car pool and electric cargo bikes. Researcher Marwa Dabaieh will talk about a house made of clay, reeds and wood. The house can be assembled quickly for users such as refugees – or students – and produces more energy than it consumes.
“I want to show that it’s possible to build good temporary housing quickly and without putting unnecessary strain on the planet”, says Marwa Dabaieh.
Virtual reality games show natural disasters
In the Virtual Reality Lab at the Ingvar Kamprad Design Centre you can try four different sustainability games. One of them allows you to sample the tough reality that farmers experience when the rains stop falling, another game shows how an earthquake feels and a third how to make the right choices for sustainable consumption.
Among the many lectures and panel debates is Debate in Lund, which will discuss degrowth versus growth and the School of Economics and Management’s lectures, which among other things will address an emerging sustainability issue.
“It’s about tax, which is a sustainability issue that is becoming increasingly important, especially within business. Engaging in more or less aggressive tax planning often undermines aspirations for sustainability”, says Jenny Hansson.
For the full programme and more information on Sustainability Week