our environmental work
Teknologkåren strives to have active environmental work. It presents the current commitment, governance documents on sustainability and what has been done in previous years in the field.
The Sustainability College
In spring 2022, environmental coordinators and environmental stakeholders at several Guilds joined forces to create a Sustainability College at Teknologkåren. The purpose of the College is to provide environmental officer positions at all Guilds a place to discuss sustainability issues, in particular how Teknologkåren and its Guilds can improve its environmental performance, and to plan sustainability-related events for the whole Teknologkåren such as lectures and flea markets.
Sustainability Week
Sustainability Week is a week in May filled with events focusing on different aspects of sustainability. The week includes exciting lunchtime lectures, panel discussions and workshops, all linked to the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
During the course of the week, LTH students will come into contact with companies and organisations that are currently working on sustainability issues, as well as gaining an insight into the technological challenges that exist today. This will include discussions on how energy, water and AI contribute to sustainable development.
If you want to be part of the Sustainability Week project team at LTH , please apply in the autumn, otherwise see you during Sustainability Week!
GUIDANCE DOCUMENT
Environmental policy and guidelines
Teknologkårens 's environmental policy is designed to raise awareness of the environmental issues affecting Teknologkårens 's activities and to introduce active environmental management into the organisation. It also contains overall environmental objectives aimed at:
● Consider environmental and ethical aspects in all purchases made
● Strive to minimise the amount of waste created and sort the waste that is still generated
● Preferably choose walking, cycling or trains for passenger and freight transport as long as it is reasonable in relation to economy, effort and travel time and minimise the number of kilometres travelled, especially when the main energy source is fossil fuel
● Work for the continuous improvement of the energy efficiency of the premises
● Disseminate information about environmental work in progress
● Conduct advocacy work by aiming to drive and implement its own policy objectives in all collaborations
The points presented in the Teknologkårens environmental policy are concretised in the guidelines for environmental work, which can be read here.
In addition to the environmental policy, the ethical considerations to be taken into account for Teknologkårens investments are also presented in the Economic Policy. As far as possible, investments should be made in companies where a significant part of the turnover is linked to nicotine products, pornography, commercial gambling or violations of human rights, labour law, the environment and anti-corruption. This policy also states that it is desirable that Teknologkåren avoids investments in companies where the exploitation of fossil resources is the core business of the organisation.
Teknologkårens Student Social and Education Policy Program (SOUP)
The views that Teknologkåren promotes in its advocacy work with universities are presented in the SOUP. guild 12 describes positions related to ecological, social and economic sustainability. One part of the positions is about how sustainability can be included in education, for example by evaluating courses based on Agenda 2030 and with at least 6 credits related to sustainability within each programme. The second part of the statements focuses more on LTH and LU taking responsibility for driving sustainability issues, both by reducing their carbon footprint and by being a driving social actor on these issues. These statements can be read in full on page 33.
History
2022/2023
The Sustainability College
During the spring, environmentalists from several Guilds met to discuss environmental work. This collaboration became official in October when the Sustainability College was created.
2020/2021
task force for environment
A task force for environment was created to work further on some of the action proposals developed under the item Teknologkåren climate work in the business plan from the year 2019/2020. The main effort of the working group was to present a proposal to the Union Board to introduce an environmental college, with Teknologkårens former association Lund Sustainable Engineers(LSE) as the main body to lead the college. With the closure of LSE, no college was established but the cross-guildal network on environmental work was strengthened in other ways. The working group is also behind the creation of this tab to make Teknologkårens environmental work more visible.
Creation of an environmental and climate network at LUS
In 2020/2021, an environmental and climate network (MK-network) was established at Lund University Student Unions (LUS). One of Teknologkårens Sabbatical Officers has represented the organisation and been involved in the network's activities since then.
2019/2020
Business plan point 8 - Teknologkåren climate work
In the 2019/2020 financial year, Teknologkåren had an activity plan item focusing on the environment and climate. One of the objectives of this item was to investigate and collate the environmental policy views of members and update governance documents accordingly. The work on this also resulted in a couple of action proposals that could be incorporated into Teknologkårens 's activities.
