On April 8-10, 2025, the SEA-EU Task 4.4 SEA-EU Goes Greener meeting was held at the Faculty of Chemistry and Technology, University of Split, Croatia.
Photos: Szymon Gronowski (UG) i Marta Marta Vrzina (UNIST)
The event was attended by delegations from the University of Cadiz (Spain), the University of Western Brittany (France), the University of Gdansk (Poland), the University of Split (Croatia), the University of Malta (Malta) and the Parthenope University of Naples (Italy) comprising academic, administrative and student staff. The University of Gdansk was represented by Sylwia Mrozowska, PhD, DSc, Prof. UG, Director of the UG Center for Sustainable Development, coordinator of task 4.4, Kuba Gudzinowicz and Szymon Gronowski from the Center for Sustainable Development, as well as Filip Maćkowiak, a third-year student of practical computer science, leader of the L2B2 initiative. The French university was represented, among others, by Yves Quere, supporting coordinator of Task 4.4 SEA-EU Goes Greener.
Day 1 (April 8, 2025) – Network building
During the first day of the meeting coordinated by the Polish delegation, the participants presented good practices in strengthening cooperation between sustainable development units. Delegations presented the structures of their centers and/or teams responsible for sustainability activities.
Sylwia Mrozowska, PhD, DSc, Prof. UG, and Kuba Gudzinowicz presented the mission, goals and current activities of the Center for Sustainable Development at the University of Gdansk. Filip Maćkowiak, meanwhile, presented the initiatives carried out by the UG Student and Doctoral Activity Center, which is actively involved in ecological and environmental activities.
Day 2 (April 9, 2025) – Charter for Sustainable Future as a foundation for change
On the second day, a French delegation from the University of Western Brittany organized a workshop to develop the content of the Green Charter – a key framework document for the ecological transformation of universities in the SEA-EU network. After a morning review of the first day’s results, the participants, divided into thematic teams, identified the most important challenges and developed program proposals, which were then voted on to identify the priority provisions. A new name for the charter was proposed by Marina Garcia Velazquez, a student from Cadiz: “Charter for a Sustainable Future.” In the second part of the day, a timetable was set for work on the Charter ahead of the upcoming SEA-EU Governing Week.
Day 3 (April 10, 2025) – Presentation of local initiatives and plans for joint projects
The last day of the workshop, coordinated by representatives of the University of Split, focused on the presentation of flagship SDG projects implemented on SEA-EU university campuses. Szymon Gronowski presented the Green University of Gdansk Competition – a special edition of the academic civic budget. The initiative is financed by SEA-EU funds and aims to integrate the University of Gdansk community around green transformation. The second day of the part included thematic workshops on concepts for international joint ventures. The closing session summarized the findings and defined mutual commitments for the future.
Conclusions and next steps
During the three days, the following were developed:
- a framework plan for a joint map of sustainability teams and units,
- the first version of the Charter for a Sustainable Future with preliminary implementation dates,
- a set of ideas for joint initiatives possible in cooperation with other universities.
The partners reiterated their pledge to hold further regular working meetings and to continue the procedure of signing the Green Charter.