To celebrate UNIgreen Day 2026, the University of Almería hosted a special co-creation workshop designed to turn big ideas into a greener reality for our campus. This event wasn’t just a one-off celebration; it was a clear demonstration of our commitment to working directly with everyone who makes up our university students, teachers, and staff alike.
The main goal was to bring our community together to help shape the university’s environmental strategy for the coming years. We wanted to move beyond just talking about sustainability and actually integrate it into the way our university is governed. By involving stakeholders from all levels, the alliance aims to provoke a systemic change where green values become part of our shared identity and daily decision-making.
How We Worked
We spent the morning in a hands-on, three-step process:
- Context and Inspiration: We started by looking at current global trends and our university’s specific environmental goals for 2025–2029 to see where we can grow.
- The Co-Creation Phase: We split into small, mixed groups mixing students with faculty and staff—to tackle five big themes: energy and water, how we get around, waste, nature on campus, and our general “green” culture. We started by venting about what doesn’t work and then moved into a massive brainstorming session
- Prototyping: Each group didn’t just brainstorm; they built “prototypes” for their best ideas, detailing exactly how they would work, who would run them, and what resources would be needed.
What did we come up with? The energy in the room was fantastic, and the conclusions were even better. Here are the five big ideas that came out of the day that the university is now looking to incorporate into its official strategy:
- A New Way to Move: A mobile app designed to reward sustainable travel habits, with a goal of freeing up 1,000 parking spaces.
- Real-Time Savings: Installing live info panels in buildings to show us exactly how much water and electricity we’re using, helping us cut down on waste.
- A “Living” Campus: A plan to create more “climate shelters” and green spaces to make the campus more comfortable and boost local biodiversity.
- Ditching the Plastic: A push to remove single-use plastics from all our vending machines over the coming years.
- Green Culture: A six-week program using cultural and fun activities to make environmental awareness a natural part of campus life, rather than just a chore.
The best part?
These aren’t just ideas for a report, they are being looked at seriously to be included in our university’s official environmental strategy. A huge thanks to everyone who spent their morning with us to help design a better future for our campus!
