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Warm Sweater Day

do 09 feb

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Ground Floor - Mandeville Building

Warm Sweater Day
Warm Sweater Day

Time & Location

09 feb 2023, 13:15 – 14:30

Ground Floor - Mandeville Building, Burgemeester Oudlaan 50, 3062 PA Rotterdam, Netherlands

About the event

This year Erasmus University is once again participating in Warm Sweater Day, a national initiative to save energy. Participants turn down their heating to reduce carbon emissions. Warm Sweater Day at EUR will be organized at the Erasmus Sustainability Hub on Thursday 9 February, Ground Floor Mandeville, 13:15 – 14:30.

After the appeal from the government to save energy last year, the thermostat in all EUR buildings has been turned down to a temperature of 19 degrees Celsius. This year, the Erasmus Sustainability Hub will serve vegan soup, and a discussion on sustainability topics will be organized. Chair of the Hub, Levi Polderman, explains the importance of this day.

Why is it important to participate in Warm Sweater Day?

‘It is a day where we’re honest with each other about the predicament we’re in. When we turn up the thermostat for heating, we miss a direct connection with what is happening many kilometers away, where in response fossil fuels are burnt. While we use energy for everything in our civilization, we are blind to this fact. However, the impact of burning fossil fuels is becoming far more salient in climate and ecology.

So Warm Sweater Day serves as an opportunity to reconnect with reality, to face the connection between heating and burning. We do this in a positive way, without fear, by wearing our happiest sweater and making use of our own biologically produced heat.’

What will the Erasmus Sustainability Hub do for Warm Sweater Day?

‘To help everyone warm up in their sweaters, we will hand out free soup for lunch, just like we did during OccupyEUR. Inside the Hub, we will engage in a conversation with Ellen van Schoten, vice-president of the Executive Board, who has sustainability in her portfolio. Students are invited to join the dialogue, and talk to Ellen about things they find important with regards to sustainability.

We will have an honest dialogue in a positive way and urge EUR to publicly recognize the climate and ecological emergency.’

What can people do to contribute to this day?

‘They can wear their warmest, happiest sweater and see the day as an opportunity to engage in honest dialogue about the fossil fuel mix which is used to as energy for electricity and heating. We can do this in a compassionate and collaborative way, where we acknowledge the shared understanding that we all want a livable future. If we start from that point, then all the details that we seem to think differently about won’t be as important.’

What advice would you give for saving energy?

‘Have a mindful approach and consider what is sufficient. It is often in our unconscious habits that we disconnect turning on the heating and what is happening with burning of fossil fuels. So be mindful and consciously watch the habits that you have. Think about the source of the energy and ask yourself what would be sufficient: Is everything I do in my unconscious habits necessary?’

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