The International Sustainable Campus Network (ISCN) Conference was held in Kungliga Technical Högskolan (KTH Royal Institute of Technology), Stockholm, Sweden on June 11
th to 13th 2018. The conference was attended by 120 participants from various universities and countries. Dr. Anom Bowolaksono was the representative from UI GreenMetric.
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Dr. Anom Bowolaksono, the representative from UI GreenMetric[/caption]
On June 11th 2018, the event was opened by Göran Finnveden, Vice-President for Sustainable Development, KTH, René Schwarzenbach, ISCN Board President, Zena Harris, Executive Director, from ISCN at the NYMBLE Building. He explained that this meeting will clarify the direction of definition and scope of sustainability on campus.
The program then continued with a group discussion, called ConverStation. The topics for discussion including “Environmental Management on a distance" by Ullika Lundgren, University of Gothenburg, “Environmental Management as a tool for sustainability in Higher Education Institutions (HEI)” by Kristina von Oelreich, KTH, and “Promoting an Asian model for campus sustainability” by Jane Singer and Maki Ikegami, Kyoto University.
The next session is the keynote address delivered by Sverker Sörlin, a professor of environmental history at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology. He explained how Sweden is ready to achieve zero CO2 emission targets but the success must be accompanied by other countries. In the afternoon session Sigbritt Karlsson President of KTH Royal Institute of Technology presented keynote address. He shared about how the KTH Royal Institute gave birth to Swedish scientists who always thought and had a spirit of sustainability.
The program continued with announcement of nominees for the Final of the Sustainable Campus Excellence Award. The nominees were finalists of ISCN Awards 2018 who invited from ISCN member countries to share their projects on excellence in sustainability on campus, Innovative Building and Infrastructure, Campus Planning and System Management, Innovative Collaboration and Student Leadership.
At the end of first day, dinner was delivered with the presentation of KTH Live-in Lab. KTH-Live-In Lab as a trial place for sustainable housing. All of participants received a tour and learn how dynamic and flexible apartment is used for research and development, and also to accelerate innovation in the construction and real estate sectors using technology.
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Jonas Anund Vogel, Director of KTH Live-in Lab delivered the presentation[/caption]
The second day, June 12th 2018 began with the topic of Global Priorities, Educated Solutions: the role of academia in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals. In this session ISCN collaborates with member countries of International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU). This session was opened by Melissa Goodall, from Yale University. Starting with the presentation of several conditions for the implementation of SDGs in several universities such as the University of Cape Town, University of California Berkeley, and Peking University.
The next session discussed about solutions to the constraints of the SDGs implementation activities. It also conveyed about the success stories of several universities in the world in the application of SDGs and innovations in these fields. The session was closed by Jeff Sachs, Director of Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and Director of Center for Sustainable Development, Columbia University.
On the second day, there was poster session for universities. UI GreenMetric joined the session too. Many of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) or Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs) participated in the poster session for explaining some of their programs.
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Poster session for universities[/caption]
The afternoon session was filled with the theme of climate change which is about how to reduce CO2 and clean air business. It also intended to explore new ways to develop, test, and integrate sustainability ideas to strengthen understanding of sustainability.
Before dinner, participants toured around Stockholm City. The city of Stockholm is a sustainable city. Many of public facilities are well available. Most people prefer to ride a bicycle to work and go to school by walking showed implementation of sustainable behavior. In addition, many people prefer organic food which is also available at supermarkets widely.
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Campus Tour[/caption]
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Waste management in Stockholm City[/caption]
Activities on third day, June 13th 2018 began with an introduction to the program on the last day, then continued with evaluation of the group's activities during afternoon session on the second day. The goal of evaluation was to know how to bring lessons during the ISCN meeting in Stockholm to each participant's campus. In addition, networks of fellow ISCN members are strengthened by disseminating information and also involving several stakeholders in it.
After a group photo, the session continued with a brief presentation of case studies from several universities in the world, they presented several events along with sustainability solutions that they had experienced so far.
The program continues with the Advisory Committee & Board updates about several new member universities. Subsequently, it is proceeded with the presentation of several rector-level leaders of universities in Europe.
Closing remarks were carried out to conclude the three days event. The committee of ISCN 2018 concluded that it is important to socialize the concept of sustainability massively. The scopes and concepts of sustainability in higher education still needs to be clarified. It is important to make a sustainability network to strengthen the implementation of sustainability in higher education.