Universities of Izmir and Zurich – Don’t Waste my Energy project

Context

The Don't waste my energy project was initiated in 2016 by the University of Zurich. The aim of the project is to bring together students from around the world to collaborate on common projects. In 2023, the University of Zurich is collaborating with 5 different universities:

• University of Antwerp
• University of Izmir
• University of Berlin
• University of Delhi
• University of Kerala

The students work together on several themes: climate, biodiversity, food, recycling, energy, mobility, etc. They post articles and project ideas on the online platform "the horse" and benefit from the comments and ideas of other students to improve their project. The second stage is to set up a collaborative project between the university in Zurich and the collaborating university (e.g. Izmir).

The projects

Since 2017, the Universities of Zurich and Izmir (Anatolian High School) have been working together on various projects and ideas, known as the Zürlzmir collaboration. As a result, two classes have experienced an environmental project in mixed teams:

Pupils tried to create a relationship with their own local environment or with the place where they live - for example by linking and comparing Zürich and Izmir. Students from partner classes suggested over 60 project ideas and researched 9 topics organised in mixed teams. The projects are available on their website. The topics they have chosen are :

• Water pollution
• Buying fairly, being fairly: fair trade
• Pollution attracts attention
• Sustainable food
• Izmir sustainable food project
• The Overfishing Challenge
• Go further with e-mobility!
• Palm oil
• Melting glaciers and floods - Effects of the climate crisis

Who is it for ?

This initiative is aimed at students from all over the world who want to work together on sustainable development issues.

Results

Thanks to the project, 5 collaborations between students from all over the world have been achieved and many other joint projects have been carried out around the world. You can find out more about all the projects here: https://umap.osm.ch/en/map/the-horse-collaborations_4694#2/23.3/21.8

This initiative sheet was written by Yohan Taris, Let’s Food intern in February 2023.

Sources

Last modification : 29 Jun 2023.