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Green Responsibility
The most visible sign of the initiative “Green Responsibility” at Witten/Herdecke University is a row of fruit trees along the paths behind the campus. The avenue of now 74 trees has individual sponsors. Each sponsor may leave a message in front of his or her tree on the topic “environment and preservation”. The idea is to take a stand and give passers-by something to think about.
“The planted trees and sponsors’ messages reflect our approach very well,” says Alexander Spinola, 8th semester medical student and one of ca. ten active members. “We are all responsible for what we do. But most of our everyday activities affect others or the environment. We want to create an awareness.” You need not be an environmental activist; a first step would be to change over to green electricity.
“This is one focus of our activities. We provide information and advice on green electricity and use 100 per cent of commissions to finance other projects. So far we have convinced 50 householders to change course.”
Many small initiatives add up to something big, but all this requires information and education – a second focus for this initiative. Green electricity is one aspect, others are environmentally friendly paper, mobility, ethical investment, or alimentation. “With our partial project on individual responsibility we address these and other topics and illustrate consequences and alternatives.” The initiative will host a seminar on foodstuffs as part of fundamental studies next semester, and plans lectures at local schools.
The idea behind Green Responsibility is to give people food for thought and make them change course.
Contact:
Alexander Spinola