Tecnun's sustainability club, awarded for its good environmental practices

The sustainability club of Tecnun, the School of Engineering of the University of Navarra, has been awarded as the best internship in the university world in the III Edition of the award BASF. The nationwide competition recognises projects that contribute to the circularisation of Economics. Organised by the group BASF and the Club de Excelencia en Sostenibilidad together with the partnership de EFE Verde, it has awarded products or services in 6 categories: Gran business, PYME, Start-Up, public administration, Academic World and knowledge dissemination. 

Elixabete Elosegi , a student from San Sebastian and manager of Green Tecnun, expresses how "excited they were to receive this news, as there were almost 100 participating projects, and 42 in our category that competed for the award". Elosegi, a 3rd year Industrial Technologies Engineering student, adds that "the value of Green Tecnun is that it is the students themselves who voluntarily promote successful projects". The club was founded in 2017 and is currently made up of 34 engineering students who work on 18 projects focused on reducing the environmental footprint, promoting sustainable behaviour or including Economics circular criteria in the activities of Tecnun's university life.  

"We are advising the Tecnun eRacing automotive team to help them improve the circularity of the single-seater. They are initiating actions such as improving waste separation, reusing materials and tools or including filters in the sink to minimise waste", adds Ander Bastida, also from San Sebastian and student of 4th year in Biomedical Engineering.  

"Another exciting project is to use the oil from the Ibaeta cafeteria to make soap at campus. It is an initiative that we are developing, we have already prepared the soap and now we are looking at how to implement its use in the campus", said Bastida.

In addition, the students try to raise awareness about the importance of reducing, reusing and recycling. Through social networks, they report on sustainable habits, initiatives and activities of the club and collaborations with sustainable organisations. It should be noted that Tecnun, the School of Engineering of the University of Navarra, supports student body according to its needs, with technical advice or equipment, such as the loan of laboratories or materials.

Carmen Jaca, lecturer at Tecnun and coordinator of university club, says that she presented the candidacy "to give voice to the work that Green Tecnun is developing to make our campus a more sustainable place, and thus encourage them to continue working on this project, because it is a valuable activity for the university and can be an example for other universities".