Events | Themes | Sustainability at the University of Twente

Events with(out) impact

Events large and small are an important part of life on campus. While organizers want their events to have impact on their participants, the goal is to do so while having as little impact on the environment as possible. Therefore, the UT is working on realizing CO₂ neutral events, circular events and congresses by reducing waste, transfering to low environmental impact food options and other sustainability criteria.

Events at a glance

The UT focuses on realizing plastic-free events as soon as possible
Small-scale pilot events that are completely waste-free will be organized in the coming period
On-campus events organized by external parties will report on their sustainability perfomance from 2023 onwards

Planning

Planning Events

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More about events

Sustainability Week

Sustainability Week is a week full of events designed by students and staff to inspire and realize a sustainable future. This week has been organized by ROC van Twente, Saxion University of Applied Sciences, and the University of Twente.

Visit the website of Sustainability Week

Sustainable Event Certification Checklist

The Green Hub Twente has created a tool that allows you to check the sustainability of your event and get your event certified by the Green Hub. The tool is aimed at student associations, but is useful for anyone planning an event.

Sustainable events plan

Part of becoming a sustainable organization is organizing sustainable events. Therefore, UT has written a plan to bring our events in line with our sustainability ambitions - without compromising on the quality of the events. This UT sustainable events plan focusses on how medium and large sized events can contribute to create and build awareness of sustainability, in addition to reducing its own impact.

What can you do?

Follow the Green Hub's Sustainability Guide when organizing an event
Prevent waste, for example by serving tap water instead of bottled water
Consider sustainability when ordering food or giveaways for your event

Sustainable events guide

This guide is designed to empower event organizers at the University of Twente by providing practical tools and insights to enhance sustainability efforts in their events. While many organizers are already incorporating sustainability principles and some have dedicated sustainability officers, there is still an opportunity to deepen these practices. The UT notices that many event organizers still have questions about further integrating sustainable methods, identifying the right contacts for sustainability-related inquiries, and effectively implementing the goals outlined in UT’s Sustainable Events Plan.

Monitoring events

Monitoring and analysing data from events are needed to align the events on campus with the sustainability policy goals. After monitoring the events, measures can be formulated to reduce the overall impact of the events. Therefore, all large events on the campus must monitor and report on their impact from 2025 onwards.

Sustainable fund

The SEE-programme and Student Union started a sustainability fund to make associations more sustainable. One-time partial funding is available when associations want to become more sustainable by buying more sustainable clothing, promotional material or by implementing sustainability during events.

In the past, this funding has been used to change all disposable cups to water bubbles during the triathlon and to order information banners for the cup return system.

Do you want to know if you qualify for the fund? More information can be found on the website of the Student Union.