GREEN ADVISOR
Enhancing environmental sustainability of EU funded projects
THE PROJECT
GREEN ADVISOR: “enhancing environmental sustainability of EU funded projects” is an Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership in the field of Adult Education that involves 6 partners from 5 Countries (Iceland, Spain, Italy, Turkey and Finland), who will work together addressing the need to lower the environmental CO2 footprint that the Erasmus+ projects generate while being implemented. Its main objective is to “mainstreaming green practices” in Erasmus+ projects looking at the whole arc of project management/implementation activities by developing a self-assessment and strategic set of tools, including training resources and calculators, designed for project managers and participants of Erasmus+ to measure their environmental footprint, and encourage them to acquire green transition competencies applied on EU project management to concretely put in place compensation/pre-emptive measures to balance the pollution/environmental impact produced in Erasmus+ transnational cooperation.
PROJECT RESULTS
During 3 years of project implementation, GREEN ADVISOR aims to develop the following list of Outcomes & Project Results:
• Multilingual and Multilevel Project Website: available in English, Icelandic, Italian, Spanish, Turkish and Finnish.
• Environmental quality assurance framework on European project management: aiming to contribute to embed a systematic way of “green by design” concept in all the phases of a EU project and define the specific CO2/pollution measurements according to the different choices project managers/adult educators do in the activities they pursue.
• Project Management Footprint Calculator and Orientation Online Tool: an analytical tool to assess EU project design sustainability as well as an orientation tool, and in this way encourage educators and other adult education staff to enhance critical thinking and concretely acquire new thoughts/opinions/valuable information that can set the basis of transversal green competencies for the development of present and future EU projects.
• A Blended Training of Trainers in Iceland for 18 Adult Educators/Project managers/Trainers: designed to test the developed project results and tools, while training, transferring and sharing green practices among the participants in a multicultural environment.
• Green open badge system to introduce an Environmental Quality Assurance System for EU projects: implementation of a recognition system to award the best projects in terms of environmental footprint and sustainability is how we want to enhance quality assurance in adult education opportunities, and in this way commit participants to compete in a virtuous way as it is done for the European projects in general with the “good practices” badge.
• Final set of Multiplier Events in each Country: to reach approximatively 195 attendees in total, where also the final Green EU project management Booklet will be shared with the wider audience of identified target groups and relevant stakeholders to the project.
TARGET GROUPS
• PROJECT MANAGERS OF EU-FUNDED PROJECTS (they are the personnel which overlook the coordination of EU projects and are in charge of the correct project implementation or quality monitoring, so it is crucial to train them in acquiring full awareness on the different facets of green mainstreaming).
• ADULT EDUCATORS INVOLVED IN EU-FUNDED ACTIVITIES (either at the level of researcher, trainer, or of associated partners of EU projects).
• NON-PROFIT STAFF WORKING IN EU PROJECTS (either as financials or accounting, local facilitators, etc.).
• VOLUNTEERS/PARTICIPANTS PART OF EU-FUNDED MOBILITIES (any person who is part of a mobility or who has participated to different project activities, such as pilot testing, local research, etc.).
• NEWCOMERS of the Erasmus+ programme, to guarantee a tool that will make easy and simple for any organisation with no previous experience to improve their own environmental practices while developing the projects.
• STARTUPPERS OR OTHER ORGANISATIONS involved in H2020 or in research innovation projects.
*Additional target groups will be identified and targeted alongside the project implementation and any other interested parties can also benefit from the freely accessible results, green methodologies and findings of the project GREEN ADVISOR.
Project activities
Over the past three years, the Green Advisor team has worked hard to deliver all the project’s initiatives and outputs in the most effective way possible, and over the course of the project’s lifespan, there were many opportunities to meet in person to more effectively develop these.
Kickoff Meeting in Turku
The project got off to a great start in the lovely city of Turku, where the team gathered to outline the work ahead and plan the project’s outputs, strategizing the best ways to create and develop the first project result, the Environmental Quality Assurance Framework, determining indicators and key areas in which to analyse the environmental awareness of organisations and the projects they participate in.
After the meeting in Turku, partner went straight to work on developing the framework by engaging experts and project managers across Europe to gain the most in-depth knowledge possible to provide real benefits with the developed report.
Meeting in Cori
For the project’s second meeting in the beautiful city of Cori, partners gathered in the offices of Polygonal, a building with a rich history of culture and education given its status as a historic public library.
During the meeting, partners not only discussed the finalisation of the Environmental Quality Assurance Framework, but also kicked off discussion on the Green Advisor self-assessment tool, as well as the project’s most ambitious result: The Carbon Footprint calculator, designed to become a new benchmark in EU environmental awareness.
Training in Iceland
In addition to the project’s transnational meetings, partners had the opportunity to gather and learn together in a blended learning mobility held by the coordinator, GeoCamp Iceland, in their beautiful home country. Here, partners joined together to each deliver training activities and learning scenarios based on their areas of expertise and specialisation, creating together learning opportunities to be included in the project’s outputs.
During the mobility, partners also had the privilege to see the beauty of Iceland, with various study visits and cultural exchange opportunities in addition to the planned training activities. Throughout the training, strategy sessions were also held to plan the development of the project’s outputs, making the training in Iceland not only an unforgettable experience, but also a highly fruitful event.
Final project meeting in Reus
The final project meeting took place in Reus.
Partners worked to finalize the environmental self-assessment tool and the Carbon Footprint Calculator for European Projects. The meeting served to advance the project’s final outputs and materials.
In addition, the group took the opportunity to explore the local culture of Reus. During the meeting, partners also discussed the project’s sustainability beyond its official end date and explored potential further initiatives.
GREEN ADVISOR
Enhancing environmental sustainability of EU funded projects
This project has been funded with the support of the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
Project No: 2022-1-IS01-KA220-ADU-000085530