Interview: One Saturday Morning and A Camera: Ockham Eco-challenge Feature

Picture this: Students decide to come together one Saturday so they can film a last-minute submission for an important competition. Do they win?

Let’s zoom out. 

Sustainability is a discussion that has been gaining heat over the last few years. The student community is not exempt from this; rather, there are multiple passionate individuals who want to see a change in the way the world works, in the status quo. More and more, we begin to meet young people who are motivated to spread awareness about the energy we consume, and how we consume it. At the University of Twente, the major organisations well-known for their advocacy in sustainability practices are GreenHub and Sustain. GreenHub, specifically, was founded by Ockham members, so it was only a matter of time before an important challenge made its way to Ockham’s doors.

Enter: the Eco-challenge.

It is GreenHub’s call to action for members of the UT community. They challenged all houses and associations in the UT to pitch innovative ideas for implementing sustainable practices on campus. For the winning ideas, they offered a substantial prize: funding to make those ideas a reality. Consequently, their challenge garnered the attention of passionate individuals within the UT community, three of which are Ockham’s own.

Meet: Nina, Nathan, and Wouter! Together, they comprise the team that participated in the Eco-challenge.

MEET NINA: A proactive individual with major contributions to Ockham’s 14th board and an influence that can call her peers to action. 

She heard about the Eco-challenge, and had ideas of her own that she wanted to share. She knew a couple of fellow peers who had ideas of their own as well. “Together, we made a plan on what we wanted to do and how we wanted to film it,” Nina said. “We saw that the deadline was getting closer and closer, so I was like, ‘Okay, I have time this Saturday, let’s go film it!’” 

MEET NATHAN: He owns a cool laptop, and it was his weapon in the fight for sustainability. 

He was contacted by Nina that Saturday, and he did not hesitate to meet with her and help create a submission that was sure to convey their creativity, enthusiasm, and commitment to bettering the world. “It was a Saturday, Nina was like, ‘Okay I’m in the Ockham room. Do you have time to do it now?’ The two of us came here and we took a camera and started recording, then edited it together,” Nathan added to the story.

“It was something that I thought should get some power – some action – in it.”

MEET WOUTER: Another board member with strong ideas about sustainable practices and how to implement them within Ockham.

Wouter came in during the finale, reminiscent of a superhero flying in at the last minute to help his peers achieve victory. “When we were invited to the finale, [it] was in a relatively small time frame,” said Wouter. “It helped that beforehand, we did already discuss some ways we wanted to look at sustainability within the association.” 

The ideas they had previously discussed together included: sustainable coffee and merch within Ockham, recycling operations for plastic bottles, and finally, a digital poster system that would help Ockham go paperless. “You have to think of what things will actually make a big difference, because not everything is going to make as big of a difference,” Nathan said about their brainstorming process. “But there’s still a lot we can do.” 

So, they presented all their ideas in the video, and hoped that by doing so they could help bring change to Ockham. 

“This was something that had a deadline, and we did not want to miss the deadline,” Nina expressed. “It was something that I thought should get some power – some action – in it.”

And some action it got indeed! After their video submission, they were invited to the Eco-challenge finale, where they were subsequently awarded 3rd place. This meant that, through them, Ockham received the means to implement sustainable practices within its community.

“There’s a measurable difference that we were able to make with just a Saturday morning, a camera, and a laptop to edit a video on.”

“We think that sustainability is a very important thing within Ockham. For example, we always have vegetarian food [during lunch lectures and activities],” Nina said about their motivation to make the video. “That’s a conscious choice. Sustainability is a value that is important to the association [and having this] confirmed through the challenge would be a good idea.”

“As we got 3rd place, we now [have] extra budget to make sure that we actually have more sustainable practices which we otherwise would not have the funding for,” added Wouter.

Some of their ideas can already be seen in practice:

1. Vegetarian food

Ockham members are already quite familiar with vegetarian food, as this is what’s served in lunch lectures, plenary sessions, and other important events. In the upcoming Batavierenrace as well, Ockham has plans to implement a vegetarian barbeque!

“What we think does make an impact is vegetarian food,” said Nina. “What makes a bigger impact is influencing other people to become more aware, and that’s what we’re trying to do as an association and as individuals.” 

2. Segregation bin

Another thing Ockham members might have seen is the segregation bin in the association room. “We’re trying to use the sustainability budget in different ways, like the segregation bin to [help] solve the plastic problem,” Nina explained.

3.Sustainable purchases

Did you know? This year’s new cohort received sustainable goodie bags, and that was no accident! Often, implementing change can happen in small ways, like taking the time to make sure that merch and other purchases (like tea and coffee) are made with a green thumb.

“The hope is that in the end, it does affect the wider community,” Nathan said. “It can be quite simple things, like getting coffee from sustainable fair trade sources.”

4. Collaborations

Ockham is also planning to practise sustainability in collaboration with other associations in the UT and beyond. For example, we already have connections with GreenHub and Sustain, the former of which was previously invited to give a sustainability lecture during a plenary session. But we should not limit ourselves to our immediate community, because we can also collaborate further with the Honours associations from other universities in the Netherlands. We will see the fruits of this interuniversity collaboration soon in the Batavierenrace!

“Some things will work, some things won’t, but hopefully other people can pick up on what we’re doing and join in,” Nathan said.

5. GreenEvent certification 

Ockham is also working to receive its GreenEvent certification from GreenHub in the near future. “That way we can show explicitly that, ‘Hey, we have tried to make this [event] sustainable. This is what we did,’” Wouter said. “And it not only is a certificate for the association members to see what we’re doing, but also it can set an example for other associations.” 

These are only a few examples of how Ockham is changing, and with all these ideas set in motion, the future looks very green.

“It’s a lot of money which is now being used for some very good initiatives, which we otherwise would not have the space to focus on. We now actually can focus on these things and there’s a measurable difference that we were able to make with just a Saturday morning, a camera, and a laptop to edit a video on,” Nathan said.

To all aspiring change-makers in Ockham, Wouter encourages: “I would like to invite everyone who’s reading this interview to also, if they ever have any ideas – maybe for Ockham or other organisations – to always try to reach out to them or to other people who can reach out to them. For example, [Ockham] does have some contacts in the university, so if you do not know who to approach in the university, we do have ideas, just send an email to the board and we can forward it. Within the association, we invite everyone to show initiative, because this is something we need to do together.”

Picture this: students with a lot of heart and a camera to convey it to the rest of the world. Together, they create a video submission to send their best ideas to the Eco-challenge. Do they win?

Yes, they win. Because – regardless of being recognized in first, second, or third place – these students have spurred an awareness and a need for change. With all that they have accomplished so far and all that the future has to hold… who knows? Planted seeds have the potential to someday flourish into a beautiful garden.

So we encourage you: plant those seeds. Make that garden. All you need is one Saturday morning and a camera.

-Venise-