Name

Josefine Rook

Location

Netherlands

What was your ‘eureka’ moment for getting into sustainability?

As a little girl of about 10 years old, my primary school teacher explained to class that I should never spill water, for example leaving the tap open when brushing my teeth, because children in other countries had to walk hours to get some. That made me realize that my behaviour could influence the possibilities of someone else, also far away. I think this was my "eureka"-moment, because I have never forgotten about this and try to live up to this lesson learnt every day.

What have you been doing on sustainability since?

I am mainly involved in the board of Studenten voor Morgen (in English: Students for Tomorrow) that tries to organize many projects for students about sustaiability in higher education. The most important project is the SustainaBul, where we rank higher education institutions on their sustainability performance. I am also involved in the movement that works with the government on the Treaty for Sustainable Education, that 40 youth organisations signed together with a majority of the parliament.

What’s your vision for reaching a sustainable future?

My hopes for the future are that every person in every education level, regardless of their discipline, learns about sustainability and how they can reduce their footprint and that sustainability is an integrated theme in education, not just a specialty or course. This way every student that finalizes it's education, will have some sustainable knowlegde she/he will put into practise without realizing. What we have to overcome is both our fear of "doing the wrong thing" as well as the inertness of the educational system because this is very urgent now and we have no time to waste in long discussions and elaborate talks. It is time to act now.

Website