According to Industry Europe, European textile consumption ranks number four in the terms of environmental impact after food, housing and mobility. Textiles is the third highest area of consumption of water and land use, and fifth highest for the use of primary raw material.

Textiles are used in clothing, household goods, furniture, medical and protective equipment and makes a day of our everyday life and the production and consumption of textiles continue to grow.

According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation global textile production almost doubled between 2000 and 2015. The European Environment Agency expect textiles consumption to grow by 63% by 2030.

In this article, we want to introduce the Green Tech Cluster to you, which is located in Styria, Austria. The Green Tech Cluster is a global centre for innovative energy and environmental technology. It was founded in 2005 with 80 organisations. Nowadays, it consists of more than 200 companies and research institutions. Together, they want to make our planet greener.

The aim of Green Tech Cluster is to show that sustainable actions do not only cause costs, but they lead to a global competitive advantage. Therefore, the member organisations of the cluster are working on many diverse innovative solutions for more sustainable and circular actions and processes in different fields:

Omnia’s student restaurants are constantly striving to find new ways to increase the amount of vegetarian food, reduce waste and operate in a safe manner.

Resurrect your Bread – again and again…

Reusing old bread in new bread recipes is a common way to use leftovers from a previous bread production.
According to various experiments (in house), it is possible to add up to 20% old bread in a bread recipe – of the same type of bread. There is a few conditions, which must be met in the process.

The bread should not be moulded in any way it is easy to smell if the bread has started to mould – it smells like an “old wet basement” or if the mould is visible on the bread. Discharge the whole bread if it is mouldy.

When we hear about Artificial Intelligence, we can immediately associate it with concepts such as technology, innovation, automation, robotics, efficiency, and even possibly the replacement of human beings.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a technology that is part of the Computer Science area and is understood as the development of machines with the ability to learn, which are programmed in advance, making use of well-elaborated and complex algorithms that provide decision-making and problem solving, extrapolations and even interactions based on the data provided (Damaceno and Vasconcelos, 2018). In a more simplified way, we can consider that one of the goals of AI is the development of machines that carry an intelligent behavior, very similar to human behavior, so that they can act in complex environments (Nilsson, N., 1998).

In Vaasa we have one of the oldest waste management companies in Finland called Stormossen. We got a opportunity to visit them in June 2021.

Enviromental educator Sini Hemming presented us their activities.

From 14 to 16 September, our first Online Learning Teaching Training Activity took place. The first day was used to give the participants an introduction to the city of Graz and the VET system in Austria. In addition, we gained insights into the topic of sustainability in teaching by having Ms Hübner, University of Klagenfurt, present sustainable initiatives as well as the project BuNE-Z, in which she is involved. Afterwards, the materials for the theory package that had been prepared up to the event were presented and evaluated by the participants. This first day came to a pleasant end with a quiz on Austrian culture.

In recent decades, Sustainability has been a constant concern and a priority for the industrial sector, due to the negative impacts that emissions and different types of waste represents for the environment and its preservation.

Although the industry has a considerable contribution to the evolution of this problem, this sector is essential for the production of products and goods, as well as for the promotion of employment and for the economic development.

As such, in addition to applying demanding environmental regulations, it is crucial that the industry think of ways to reduce the impacts that these emissions and wastes represent for environmental development.

Thus, there is a combination between the LEAN concept, which corresponds to the implementation of management tools and continuous improvement, and the GREEN concept, which is associated with sustainable practices and processes incorporated in environmental management systems (Vasconcelos et.al., 2013).

We are committed to reducing our carbon footprint to guide our choices in procurement, policies and processes. In 2025, Omnia will be carbon neutral and Omnia’s energy self-sufficiency rate will have increased significantly.

Omnia promotes citizens’ participation, skills and well-being and increases the vitality of municipalities, communities and businesses in the region. Omnia is a large and modern education provider offering a wide range of services with a focus on supporting lifelong learning. Our operations are guided by the changing needs of the future.

Every student in vocational education in Finland has to do one competence points from chemical phenomena and their application. One competence point is about 18 hours of work. The curriculum for teaching chemistry says that: The students must know how to take into account chemical substances and their properties in their work and assess their chemistry skills in the vocational field. Key concepts are to understand chemical phenomena (such as chemical bonding and chemical reactions), the chemical properties (such as flammability, reactivity and toxicity of a substances) and possible environmental risks of the most common chemical substances used in the vocational field. In Vamia there are four pedagogical themes: energy, Lean, entrepreneurship and internationality. Sustainable development is listed as one of the subtheme in energy.

How do I integrate sustainable development when teaching chemistry?

“Did you ride the bus to school today? Was it a biogas bus?”

Photo: City of Vaasa / Mikael Matikainen