Photo ©Luc Hilderson
Cécile Van de Weerdt, the coordinator of the Green Office at the University of Liege, has been awarded the title of Sustainability Pioneer 2022. Awarded by the Belgian Business Federation and the non-profit organisation Time4Society, this title was given to her for setting up the sustainable development platform within ULiège that she has been managing since then, surrounded by numerous students from all the faculties of our institution.
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n 24 February 2022, Cécile Van De Weerdt was awarded the Sustainability Pioneer 2022 prize for the French-speaking part of the country at a ceremony honouring four entrepreneurs who have developed positive and sustainable values within their companies.
According to the press release published on the award website: The jury found that Cécile Van De Weerdt, from the University of Liège, deserves the title of Sustainability Pioneer for founding the Green Office in her academic institution. Together with a team of students, she has developed a commitment programme with clear objectives and a roadmap to halve the individual carbon footprint of students by 2030. She is taking on this challenge in a very focused and structured way. It continuously motivates young people and stakeholders to achieve this goal together. The Sustainability Pioneer Award honours a beginner in the field of sustainability who has set up a solid and inspiring project or good practice in the past year. The title is awarded to one Dutch and one French-speaking candidate.
"My first feeling is to say THANK YOU," said Cécile Van De Weerdt. "A Thank you to the whole team for the great energy of their work, their pro-activity, their benevolence. The current Green Office team is made up of Aurore Berhin, Sarah Robinet and our student interns, Laura, Emilie, Joyce and Valentine. They are also our (six) student jobbers: Lorren, Fanny, Marie, Fanni, Lucas, Emilien, Anthony and our student volunteers, Emilie, Vincent (who makes videos for us) and many others. A special thanks to Aurore for her support on the field! I would also like to thank all the members of ULiège with whom we work closely and the authorities of ULiège who trusted me and offered me the possibility to create this new structure. Finally, I would like to thank our financial supporters: the CDD ARES, the King Baudouin Foundation, the Pulse group (Paris) for the coaching offered following our prize in the UN Campus Challenge 2030 competition."
Cécile Van de Weerdt also invites students who are interested in the cause to join the Green Office, which also works closely with the professors at ULiège. "In March and April, we are inviting teachers to take twenty minutes with their students to calculate their carbon footprint on an online site. Understanding our carbon footprint is indeed the very first step that allows us to get moving and act appropriately. The faculties of HEC and Gembloux, as well as the Arlon site, are among the first to follow suit. All faculties are invited to participate, and we have prepared a "kit" for quick and easy use by the teacher! LINK to our website (page in preparation by Sarah)(This action) This calculation of the individual footprint is part of the challenges we propose to students on our collaborative online platform. We already have over 2250 participants and we want to increase this figure to 5000 by the end of the year! "
Finally, Cécile Van de Weerdt believes that this prize will help boost this type of programme and the sharing of challenges within higher education institutions in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. "This spring we have chosen to combine two challenges: the carbon footprint calculation and a challenge on mobility. It's very stimulating for the whole team to see other institutions getting involved in this movement!
To find out more about the activities of the Green Office and perhaps take part in them, please visit the website of the sustainable development platform of the University of Liege
