Design Impact Transition (DIT) platform

It is now time to say goodbye... And therefore also a big thank you to all of you who have followed us on our journey, engaged with us, and participated in our events! 🙏 We would love to hear from you what your DIT highlight is, or what you have learned from DIT that you will take with you? 🗨️👇 Because even though the Design, Impact and Transition platform is sadly coming to an end, we will all bring pieces of it with us - and our learnings, outcomes, and resources will be available soon on the website of DRIFT for transition - so follow them here on LinkedIn to stay updated!

Yesterday we had a beautiful, melancholic and meaningful moment on our Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam campus, celebrating the fantastic years we had with the Design Impact Transition (DIT) platform. Thanks to EUR strategic funds we were able to develop the transformative Master Societal Transitions, create a community for transformative research and education, develop discourse around transforming academia, fuel sustainability dialogues at EUR and beyond and create tangible papers, methods, networks and guidelines to support future initiatives. We were originally tasked to explore a future institutional design for interdisciplinarity at EUR, and in many ways we succeeded to make some steps. But we did not manage to transform ourselves into something new (yet). As the new EUR strategy is in development but we trust a lot of what we have cultivated will blossom further through it. And if not, we DITters will carry the values and practices of transformative academia forward. As a ceremonial marker, we carried our impact and results across campus and took a minute of silence to remember DIT and our responsibility to keep moving forward. The quilt we collectively made symbolizes the 16 core contributions we made to transforming universities and will be around for all to see and remember DIT by at Dutch Research Institute for Transitions.

👇 Do you engage in 📢 communicating for sustainability 🟢 at EUR? Want to 💪 supercharge your sustainability communication? If so, DM and I will share with you Lena Baunker's recently developed communications guide for #sustainabilitycommunicators at EUR. This great resource includes: 7 innovative examples of sustainability communication from projects worldwide, along with insights to inform our efforts at EUR. Principles for impactful sustainability communication. Methods for analyzing and engaging with our diverse audiences. 3 key changes we, as communications professionals, should advocate for to make sustainability-focused work more effective. Design Impact Transition (DIT) platform

Last Friday more than 30 sustainability enthusiasts from across the Netherlands met online to catch up about their projects and ideas on how to contribute to sustainability in education. The meeting included participants from the Sustainability Summit; a nice way to look back at the achievements of the events and discover how to contribute to the next series of initiatives in 2025! 🌱

Going shopping for a new outfit on Black Friday? You might want to reconsider “The environmental impact of fast fashion is staggering", says academic gamechanger Mariangela Lavanga. But it’s not just the planet that’s suffering. Behind those bargain prices are garment workers enduring harsh conditions. “The human cost of the fashion and textile industry cannot be ignored." Lavanga is on a mission to accelerate the sustainability transition of the fashion and textile industry. She emphasizes the need for substantial and systemic changes. Changes like improving transparency and labelling, substituting recycled fibres, take-back schemes, and textile recycling is not enough. “We need to reduce the absolute volume of garments and textiles consumed and find a new orientation for the industry." Find out more about her research via the link in comments. #jfteur #justfashion #sustainablefashion #clothing #ErasmusUniversity

Looking back at the Sustainability Summit 2024 🌱 Did you miss the summit, would like to dive into the outcomes - or just see if you can spot a picture of yourself? Then check out our updated webpage with information, results, gallery, and more ⬇️ Is there any information you are missing? Then let us know in the comments 💬

A first little peek at what went on at the Sustainability Summit 2024, where we had a lot of interesting initiatives and projects present. A lot more information about the outcomes is coming very soon, so stay tuned! 👀

Are you excited to hear about the outcomes of the Sustainability Summit? Or maybe you are just curious to see the pictures from the day? Then stay tuned, next week we are launching the post-summit website which will include: 🟢 A report from the day - including a failure report with all the things that could have been better 🟢 Photos from the event 🟢 A video recap 🟢 (Visual) summaries of workshops 🟢 And much more...

On October 11th the Hogeschool Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, in collaboration with Erasmus University Rotterdam,  hosted the Erasmus Sustainability Summit, a day to explore and discuss possibilities for a more sustainable approach to higher education. It included participation from university students, faculty members, professors, researchers, activists, artists and representatives from green offices from all over the country. The day started with a plenary session, including a welcome speech and a panel discussion on the role of science and education in the climate crisis. Two rounds of workshops followed, facilitated by students, professors and other experts. The main theme for the first round of workshop was the intersection between one’s field of study, such as economics, humanities or natural sciences and its potential to include sustainability as part of its curriculum. For the second round of workshops a variety of themes were proposed, including building sustainable partnerships or opportunities to engage with local communities. The day concluded with a discussion between universities’ stakeholders and students to suggest possible action plans. The main goal of the summit was to reimagine the role of universities in shaping a more sustainable society in tomorrow's world. And so it happened. This event facilitated the discussion between students and faculty members, but also between other actors and stakeholders within and beyond the university. There were multiple opportunities throughout the day, both in organized and in casual settings, to engage in dialogues and explore different approaches to sustainable transition. As the location could have suggested, the summit was a great opportunity to connect with students and representatives of the Erasmus University and the Hogeschool of Rotterdam and to create connections with people from all studies and educational backgrounds. The summit was fully and throughout organized. The workshops and panel discussions ran smoothly and the day was complemented with a couple of artistic performances. The setting, a shared space for a fair and the chance to meet over lunch or drinks provided plenty of opportunities to connect with people. Lunch and snacks were fully vegan and single-use plastic was almost completely avoided. This was in line with the message: sustainable transition is not only an ideological standpoint, but also a series of concrete actions to implement in daily life. In a period of budget cuts where universities seem to have set different priorities than just sustainability, the summit reminded people of the importance to meet and connect and fostered everyone’s idea that sustainability has to be further brought into discussions. Or, as one speaker in the final panel discussion commented: “We have made some improvements and now sustainability is something we talk more about. But there is still so much to be done”.

How to shape transdisciplinary education amidst specialized academic disciplines?   The Sustainable Finance Seminars, hosted by Prof. Dirk Schoenmaker with support of Design Impact Transition (DIT) platform shows how enthusiasm and organizational effort can make it happen despite structural, institutional barriers. Over the past 5 weeks together with a group of Master students from diverse academic backgrounds, we explored: 🧮The integration of financial, social, and environmental dimensions in decision-making 🛠️Practical tools for sustainable investment and long-term valuation of companies 🔑How finance can support the sustainability transition of the global economy 📊The transition of the financial system and sector itself, discussed in  a dual lecture with Derk Loorbach.   This desired future is necessarily one of transdisciplinary research and education, as the challenges and societal transitions we are facing are not restricted to the specialism of one academic domain. As co-organizer of this course, with more than 40 students who have successfully completed this course, I am very proud about the success of the seminar series. The success of this prefigurative, transdisciplinary experiment shows that the desired future is not just a distant goal - it already exists and is actively brought into practice. I want to thank Dirk Schoenmaker for our cooperation on this course but even more for his erudition, passionate teaching and leadership in taking on this role as academic frontrunner. Furthermore, I want to thank DIT for facilitating this transdisciplinary space to run the seminar series and Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University for additional facilitation. Lastly, I want to thank Zaïda Floren for laying the foundations with last academic year’s first edition of this course.