The student association Udržitelný Palacký, founded mainly by students and student staff of the Department of Development and Environmental Studies (KRES) at Palacký University in Olomouc, has for the past two years been trying to organize events intended to motivate young people toward a more frugal lifestyle. How this works in practice is explained by its founder: Tadeáš Žďárský.

Udržitelný Palacký in action

Tadeáš Žďárský organized screenings of four documentary films with a responsible-consumption theme in his first year at KRES. All the screenings were a huge success—more than 150 students came to each of them. He wanted to continue with similar activities, so he joined others who were similarly focused. This is how the student association Udržitelný Palacký in Olomouc was founded.

An Active Community of Young People

Currently, the association has about 20 active members, not only from the KRES department but even from other fields and faculties. Its founder—a Slovak student in the Czech Republic—Tadeáš Žďárský is satisfied with how it works: “Most of us agree that without the association we cannot even imagine our studies. Even though we receive no credits for it, it makes up a huge part of our education. In the association, we learn on our own skin how to turn our visions into reality, how to work in a group, lead meetings, and effectively divide work.” The most significant experience for him is observing the development of individual members and watching their personal growth in practice.

One of the most important activities of the association was a pilot project for a new method of waste sorting in dormitories. In the trial “dorm,” after introducing sorting bags for each residential room, the number of students sorting waste increased by 30%. Members are currently working to introduce this system in the remaining dormitories as well. According to Tadeáš, the university has a major influence on whether we behave responsibly or not: “Dormitories are where most students find themselves living independently for the first time after entering university—they build new habits there. They will carry on with these habits even after finishing their studies.” For this reason, the university’s responsibility cannot be underestimated.

Freeshop is the activity that has received the greatest response (in terms of media attention and public support). It is a place where students can bring items they no longer need. On the other hand, students who would benefit from such items can take them for free. “Through this project we responded mainly to the large number of functional items that were found in bins near the dormitories at the end of semesters. These included, for example, frying pans, backpacks, water bottles, or plates. The worst part was that until now new students always bought exactly the same items at the start of each semester. So both natural and financial resources were being wasted,” Tadeáš Žďárský explains the rationale for the emergence of Freeshop.

Freeshop on the university campus (at Koleje Bedřicha Václavky) is open three times a week. Dozens of students visit it, and thanks to it the operators have managed to give a second or third “life” to hundreds of still-functioning items. “I myself set up most of my kitchen equipment thanks to it after returning from abroad. It is truly simple, easy to implement, and above all a practical solution to the waste problem. We believe that in the near future, other universities will also replicate it,” adds the young environmentalist.

To Focus on Development, but Not the Economic One

For the young environmentalist, sustainable development is a kind of development that is holistic and balances all important aspects of life. It does not focus only on increasing material consumption but also on health, environmental quality, good education, and overall population well-being. It accepts natural limits and is fair, so everyone benefits, not just a few chosen ones. At the same time, he notes that the concept of sustainable development is too all-encompassing and often profaned, often misused (for example, by destructive corporations). During his volunteering in India, he realized that “development is often reduced to its economic part, i.e. developing countries should achieve the Western lifestyle. Yet this would mean not only many negative consequences for those countries, but also planetary collapse. If we therefore want to raise the standard of living of these people while the planet can handle it, we first have to reduce our excessive consumption in the West.” That is why he decided to study the environmental track at KRES in Olomouc and therefore strive for change.

For Tadeáš Žďárský, all the Global Goals (SDGs under the 2030 Agenda) are equally important and interconnected; they cannot be understood separately. As he explains: “It is impossible to feed the entire population without taking into account sufficient water or solutions to climate change, which currently significantly affect agricultural yields.” On a personal level, however, he would choose Goal 4 as the most important: Education, because he is interested in the quality and form of education. He sees that “current education systems are outdated and do not reflect the needs of individuals, nor of society as a whole.” “I do not think that new generations are being prepared for the 21st-century world, which is full of complex problems requiring interdisciplinary solutions,” adds the young Slovak in conclusion.

Text: Boba Markovič Baluchová Photo: archive of Tadeáš Žďárský and Udržitelný Palacký