A year of hard work has paid off. CZU ranked 31st in the Green Metric World University Rankings, and is thus one of the world leaders in terms of consideration for the environment.
Water management, education and waste management are the categories in which CZU received the highest ranking. As a result, according to a newly published ranking, the university jumped 15 places up from the previous year. “We had great success last year. The fact that we managed to move forward so much in a year is clear evidence that a year of our hard work has paid off. But we definitely want to keep moving forward,” says CZU Rector Petr Sklenička.
The ranking focused on 6 categories, including infrastructure, energy and climate change, waste, water, transport and teaching. Among the highly rated subcategories at CZU were, for example, the number of green areas on the campus, smart technologies implemented in buildings, the waste recycling program, water retention on the campus and the proportion of items focused on sustainability. “Our activities are constantly expanding in these areas. For example, we recently opened a new high-tech technology-learning pavilion, where an energy recovery system is used and, among other things, rainwater is drained into seepage wells,” explained the Rector.
The so-called “green” technologies will also be available to the Tropical Agriculture Pavilion, which is currently under construction. The building will have a rainwater collection system connected to the sumps and retention tank. The water will then be used for watering. “The pavilion will also have a hanging facade with climbing plants and two electric car charging stands,” said Dan Heuer, CZU Social Responsibility Specialist.
Students are also motivated to take part in sustainable activities. CZU organizes an annual competition in which student teams devise projects focused on campus sustainability. This year, thanks to this, we managed to introduce returnable coffee cups and to start to motivate students and employees not to take plastic cups from coffee machines, but rather to walk with their mugs. In the pedestrian zone between the dormitories, LED bulbs were installed that are more sleep-friendly and do not attract insects.
Thanks to students, the Freeshop has also been successful. The Freeshop is a shop where anyone can leave unnecessary things and take something away with them. The service works free of charge. In the CZU shop, there is a packaging-free sale of cosmetics and cleaning products. The newly prepared assortment of university promotional items also focuses on sustainability.