Environmental Working Group
Basic information
Established in: 2007
Main aims and tasks:
- Becoming a more sustainable association, by promoting and supporting sustainable events and raising awareness of environmental issues
- Raising awareness of the state of our planet
- Discussing solutions that can be achieved
- Collecting information on the sustainability of our network
Activities:
- European Day of Environment
- Green Summer Universities
- Workshops during local and European events
- Presence at statutory events
History:
The Evironmental Working Group (EnWG) was re-started by a team of people who were present at the “Freezing Hot New Year” event in Estonia, where the idea of re-establishing a Working Group to deal with the environment was developed. Its first board was composed of Kadri Kalle (AEGEE-Tallinn), Martien Van Gool (AEGEE-Nijmegen), Katrin Tomson (AEGEE-Tartu), Verena Schmidt (AEGEE-Tübingen), Christian Pauschert (AEGEE-Karlsruhe), and Miguel Gallardo (AEGEE-Alicante). They presented their project at the Spring Agora 2007 in Valletta, and the Environmental Working Group was born. A Working Group that is the meeting point for all AEGEE members who care about the future of our planet and of the people that live on it. It is not only about nature and wildlife, it is about human society, fairness and balance.
The group has been instrumental in the success of the Flagship Project “Sustaining Our Future” (SuFu) in 2008/2009, which gave AEGEE external visibility in the field of sustainable development for the first time and put the environment on the internal agenda of AEGEE.
Since then, we have been quite successful at integrating our ideas in AEGEE events, most remarkably through the European Day of Environment and the Green Summer Universities (with most of these ranking high on the Best Summer University ranking year after year).
Getting Involved
The ideal member of the EnWG is someone who cares about Europe and the world, with their economical, social, and environmental aspects. Someone who understands that we all can and must do something to improve the current situation. Someone who wants to discuss and learn. If AEGEE members have an interest in becoming involved, they can follow the Facebook group, the mailing list and/or join the Skype meetings.
To join the project team one should send an application to the board.
In order to become a regular member of the EnWG one should subscribe to the mailing lists and fill out the new members’ survey.
Elections:
Board positions are filled through online elections among the members of the EnWG.
Related fields of study:
Any studies are valid. The topics of the EnWG go beyond the environment and deal also with sustainability, taking in pretty much any field of study.
Working methods:
E-mails, Skype meetings, Facebook groups, sharing data systems (Google docs, dropbox, etc).
Amount of work required:
If you consider joinging the EnWG, you should also take into consideration that being a board member requires up to 1 hour of “work” per day, joining a project team in the EnWG takes up to 2 hours per week, whereas being a regular member of the EnWG takes about 30 minutes per week.
