The University Supported the Ecological Principles of Existence

12:23, April 26, 2018

Institute of Natural Sciences and Mathematics took part in the festival "VuzEcoFest-2018"

The Institute of Natural Sciences and Mathematics of UrFU took part in the interuniversity ecological festival ‘VuzEcoFest-2018’ (4th year in Russia) for the first time. From April, 18-23 students and staff of the Institute had been collecting waster paper, organized a round table ‘Ecocareer’ for schoolchildren and students, held a photo exhibition dedicated to problems of the environment and sustainable development and an action to improve the territory of the Botanical Garden of UrFU.

‘We organized several events within the scope of the general concept of ‘Ecocivilization’,’explains Tatyana Radchenko, the director of the Department of Earth and Space Sciences at the Institute of Natural Science and Mathematics of URFU. ‘The essence of the term is that now ecology includes all directions of Earth sciences, soon it should unite the entire University and become some sort of paradigm. Today there is such thing as ‘green’ university - an institution that strives to follow the principles of sustainable development. UrFU should also take it into service.’

Sustainable development is a concept that was adopted at The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The essence of the concept is to save the Planet for future generations.

The “VuzEcoFest” project is based on the popularization of ecological way of life and environmentally responsible behavior, involvement of students into voluntary environmental activities, implementation of principles of sustainable development in universities. The mission of the festival is to improve the environment in Russian cities by introducing the concept of ‘green’ universities and integrating the principles of sustainable development in these universities such as waste sorting, introduction of power-efficient technologies, development of bicycle infrastructure, implementation of eco-activities and the popularization of ecological culture.