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Maastricht Green Office Model wins UNESCO-Japan Prize 2015

Several former Maastricht University students have won the UNESCO-Japan Prize for Education for Sustainable Development. The prize was awarded for the first time this year to outstanding projects related to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Three organizations  each received an award of $50,000 funded by the Government of Japan.

RootAbility has received the award for its “Green Office Model” initiative, developed in Maastricht, which trains young people as transformation agents to foster a whole-institution approach towards ESD.  Its main actors are university students who form Green Offices as a team with both teaching and administrative staff of their institution. They learn to run their own activities, such as waste recycling, energy efficiency and sustainable catering, while raising their own funding. Green Offices have already been established in six European countries. The$50,000 prize money will be used  to further spread the Green Office Model and strengthen the Green Office Movement.

The social business opened the doors of Maastricht University Green Office in September 2010. Five years later, it has opened 14 funded Green Offices at universities and universities of applied sciences in 6 countries, and is planning to open several more.

The award was handed over in Paris on 5th November by Director-General of UNESCO, Ms Irina Bokova. The two other awardwinners are Asociación Seres from Guatamala & El Salvador and Jayagiri Center from Indonesia.  For more information about the prize and prizewinners: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36V3KpZZIW4

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