What Does Diversity Create?
Written by: Ms Ana Marija UDOVIČ (Slovenia) and Mr Ider BATBAYAR (Mongolia), ASEFSU22 alumni
What happens when 47 students and young professionals from 46 countries in Asia and Europe come together for an experiential educational journey, to explore sustainable tourism, and sustainable development at large? Diverse backgrounds unite and a door to various experiences opens. This article is about just that: a story celebrating diversity, and the eagerness to learn and ultimately create, banking on our differences.
This story begins with the 22ndASEF Summer University (ASEFSU22), which took place in Croatia and Slovenia on 12–23 September 2018. The project focused on offering youth a better understanding of sustainable tourism and sustainable development, and the programme had 3 phases:
· 4 weeks of online learning to explore the study topics and deliver individual assignments before the onsite program;
· 2 weeks of on-site learning and exploration in Slovenia and Croatia, with breakout groups to create solutions to tackle a plastic challenge for Hostelling International (HI)– the world’s largest network of hostels — and one of the main partners of ASEFSU22; and
· a 3-week post programme, including reflections and follow-up actions.
Experiential learning in Croatia & Slovenia, September 2018
We spent our 1st week in Slovenia and the following week in Croatia. We had an exciting programme with a rich set of study opportunities, covering the latest trends in tourism, behavioural research on travellers, destination management, tourism sustainability, and digital technology, such as artificial intelligence. Universities in Slovenia and Croatia were the main educational partners and the Ministries of Foreign Affairs in each country graciously hosted us and shared their role in sustainable tourism. Both the Croatian and the Slovenian Tourism Board also shared their perspectives and actions to ensure tourism benefits not only the local economy, but also helps protecting the environment for local people and visitors alike. In the spirit of experiential learning, we had the chance to ask questions to each speaker and share our knowledge and experiences.
We were, on top of the above, divided into 8 teams that worked on a challenge case proposed by HI, to help its network get rid of disposable plastics in every part of its business, under the motion — “Help us say HI to a plastic-free world!”. The diversity of our backgrounds helped us share experiences from our countries and the places we had travelled to before. It was evident that each team took a different approach to tackle this challenge when the teams presented their solutions on the last day of our programme in Croatia. We delivered in addition a comprehensive, written report of our solutions to Hl’s Sustainability team for their final assessment.
A few weeks later HI announced the winners, based on the team that offered the best messaging and communication activities as a key to help them become a plastic free network of hostels. A few months later HI also invited members from the winning team to present their solution at its global Sustainability & Operations Forum in Brussels in May 2019 — to showcase the ideas to their whole network.
As the team members from the winning team had other commitments during the time of the Forum, the ASEFEdu team invited the 2 of us to attend the Forum in Brussels in May 2019 on their as well as the rest of our fellow participants’ behalf. We both felt extremely honoured and nervous to accept such an important role of presenting the ideas of the ASEFSU22 cohort to the HI network.
The HI Operations and Sustainability Forum 2019 aimed at discussing and approving 2 key motions for its network: ending the use of disposable plastics in its businesses globally; and achieving carbon neutral operations as well. As such, the solutions the ASEFSU22 participants offered helped directly to realise this.
At the Forum, we received a very warm welcome from the HI team. More than 20 specialists and hostelers from different National HI Associations gathered in Brussels and shared their knowledge and ideas. During 2 intensive days, we had the chance to listen to various sustainability and operations projects, their outcomes, as well as participate in many interesting discussions and share our ideas.
On the 2nd day of the Forum, the 2 of us presented the outcomes of ASEFSU22, highlighting the solution of the winning team in response to ending the use of disposable plastics for the HI network. We admitted that we were nervous to present and that inspiring others is not the easiest task. Yet, we told the group that we were there to simply share the good ideas the ASEFSU22 participants had come up with for their network. Before we knew it, we had delivered our presentation to the group, who appreciated our ideas and the winning solution of communicating messages of sustainability to youth (the main clientele of HI hostels). We reiterated that:
Youth are willing to do their part in sustainability, all they need is an accessible language and exciting ways to use sustainable practices.
The 2 of us were indeed impressed to witness such openness of HI to listen to the youth, because we were in fact not the only youth representatives at the Forum. Youth representatives from the Erasmus Student Network (ESN) also took part in the Forum to share their initiatives and discuss further ways to partner with HI. Although it seems obvious that businesses targeting youth should listen to the youth, many do not actually yet do this. As such, the HI network has proven to be a role model not only truly committed to sustainability, but also to youth.
During the Forum, we also felt truly inspired by the following 3 success stories:
1) “Too Good to Go” is a pan-European project, implemented by the StayOkay chain of hostels in the Netherlands, to prevent food from ending in the landfill. It was shocking to learn that 1/3 of all food produced in the world goes to waste, or 41kg of food being thrown away per person! Considering all the resources, such as energy, water or time that goes into producing the food, this figure is not sustainable. StayOkay decided to act on that and started working with the Magic Box app service, where excess food from buffets is picked up by individuals who pay a symbolic price for the whole meal. This project helped save food waste and reduced their carbon footprint dramatically.
2) The Flemish HI Association in Belgium began a “Plastic-free May” initiative. They have been giving away a free refillable water bottle with every packed lunch to school groups staying at their hostels, to promote drinking tap water. This helped educate students about the plastic pollution and how they can drive change in their lives, homes, and schools.
3) Another amazing initiative was from the Danish HI Association: “Bugs for Breakfast”. Yes, you read that correctly! The 3 hostels in Copenhagen are the 1sthostels in Europe that took sustainable breakfast to a whole new level: Back in 2017, they added 4 dishes with select insects as the main ingredient to their breakfast buffet, offering an alternative protein source with much lower environmental impact than red meat. They even provide their visitors with a recipe.
During the Forum, all participants had a chance to venture around Brussels on a very funny and insightful trip by SANDEMANs Tours and finish the evening with what felt like a family dinner in “Les Filles”. The concept of this restaurant is to share food and bring people together in an open kitchen space. By doing so less food is wasted and people connect more.
Furthermore, the Forum took place at the Generation Europe Hostel, that can be a true inspiration to other hostels around the world in terms of sustainability. From the self-serve breakfast, where all major sources of plastic have been eliminated, to serving drinks and beverages during the Forum without any waste. Additionally, you can observe encouraging and informative signage all around the hostel reminding us to be aware of our ecological footprint.
We joined the Forum to share the outcomes of ASEFSU22 but left with brand new knowledge and perspectives. The participants of the Forum were happy to share the experiences of National HI Associations and also gave us insights into the challenges hostels are facing. We felt so lucky and grateful to have had the chance to be a part of this programme, thanks to the HI network, ASEF, and certainly our friends from ASEFSU22, who proved that Diversity does indeed Create.
NOTE:
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely by the author(s) and do not represent that of the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF). Copyright © 2019.
