Ca’ Foscari among the finalists for the GUPES Green Gown Awards

Ca' Foscari University of Venice has been selected as one of the finalists of the first edition of the prestigious Green Gown Awards, international awards dedicated to the members of the Global Universities Partnership on Environment and Sustainability network (GUPES).

This prestigious international award is a joint initiative supported by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC), that expands the Green Gown Awards further across the globe with an emphasis on profiling and learning from the Southern Hemisphere.

For the first year, the award aims to put universities and colleges as leaders in sustainability as well as highlighting the best environmental and sustainability actions implemented in universities that are members of GUPES network. The GUPES Green Gown Award Winner from each of the regions will automatically be entered into the International Green Gown Awards contest.

The GUPES Green Gown Awards were open to GUPES Members across six regions: Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, North America and West Asia. A specific category was assigned to each region, taking into account the initiatives that are normally made in the individual areas:

• Africa: Continuous Improvement: Institutional Change;
• Asia and the Pacific: Community Engagement;
• Europe: Student Engagement;
• Latin America and the Caribbean: Community Engagement;
• North America: Student Engagement;
• Western Asia: Continuous Improvement: Institutional Change.

Ca' Foscari, as a member GUPES since 2012, has joined this first edition of GUPES Green Gown Awards with a project of student engagement: the "Dancing Solar Flowers" art installation by artist Alexandre Dang, displayed in Ca' Foscari's main courtyard in 2015. The installation consisted of an artificial field of around 200 flowers, which move thanks to the sunlight captured and converted into electricity by small solar photovoltaic cells.
The project, which united the scientific and artistic approaches, aimed to promote the knowledge of renewable energies and increased awareness on sustainability issues and solutions in this field.
An essential part of the project was the active involvement of students in the construction phase and in the production of in-depth materials on issues related to the artwork, in order to educate young people about the potential of eco-friendly technologies, with particular reference to renewable energies.

The nomination shows Ca' Foscari's committment to promote awareness on sustainability issues for the whole community and especially towards students, as future generators of sustainable value.