Participation of Environmental Science Students in an Open Discussion "Riga - European Green Capital"

Elina Dace,Liga Ozolina,Alise Berzina,Ieva Lorence

doi:10.2478/v10145-010-0031-6

Abstract

Participation of Environmental Science Students in an Open Discussion "Riga - European Green Capital"Starting from the year 2010, each year one European city is selected as the European Green Capital of the year. The award is granted to a city that has a consistent record of achieving high environmental standards, and is committed to ongoing and ambitious goals for further environmental improvement and sustainable development, as well as can act as a role model to inspire other cities and promote best practices to other European cities. Riga participated in the competition once, but did not fulfill the conditions, therefore an open discussion "Riga - European Green Capital" was organized by a nongovernmental organization "Association of Environmental Science Students". The aim of the discussion was to develop suggestions for the Riga city council on how to win the title "European Green Capital". Students of technical and engineering sciences were involved in the discussion to give their vision on what is needed for the city to comply with all the criteria of the competition. Thus, another aim of the discussion was to promote collaboration between students and the Riga city council in terms of environmental thinking.As a result of the discussion, a

Highlights

Students are the most progressive part of society, frequently, due to a lack of experience, they have little opportunity to influence decisions made by national governments, municipalities and other authorities
The most important outcome of the discussion are the skills which students gained from the experience of presenting their ideas and discussing them with specialists of the specific field
The aim of the paper is to introduce a group of students who have established a nongovernmental organization, and to present one of the organization’s first undertakings – an open discussion where the overall topic was the future development of the city of Riga

Summary

Introduction

Students are the most progressive part of society, frequently, due to a lack of experience, they have little opportunity to influence decisions made by national governments, municipalities and other authorities. If such opportunities appear, they do not necessarily mean that the authorities will listen. The reason for choosing such a form for discussion was because this method is rarely applied in the everyday teaching process of students, and because it presented the opportunity to talk to municipal authorities on an equal level

Objectives

Results

Conclusion