Sustainability in Facilities
Ramon Rahangmetan
Co-Founder Circle of Sustainable Europe | Project Manager | Educator & Content Creator
Unlocking Sustainability in Facilities: A Comprehensive Exploration
In this enlightening and insightful video presentation, Ramon Rahangmetan, the co-founder and treasurer of the Circle of Sustainable Europe (CoSE), delves deep into the world of sustainability in facilities. With a wealth of knowledge and experience, Ramon elucidates the critical role that sustainable practices play not only in our environment but also in nurturing the growth of students and educational institutions.
Introduction: The video begins with a warm welcome from Ramon Rahangmetan, who introduces himself and his affiliation with the Circle of Sustainable Europe (CoSE). He sets the stage for an engaging discussion on sustainability and green facilities, promising a wealth of valuable information.
ERASMUS+ Projects: Ramon Rahangmetan delves into the significance of ERASMUS Plus projects, shedding light on their pivotal role in promoting learning, mobility, and cultural understanding among students. He emphasizes how these projects, financed by the European Commission, offer students an expanded perspective on their career paths. Ramon also underscores the importance of non-formal and formal innovative learning and education, highlighting the various ways students can gain valuable skills and insights.
Tools for Social Visibility: One of the key projects discussed is "Tools for Social Visibility," which focuses on social media marketing and strategies for students. Ramon explains how this project equips students with the skills to filter information effectively and market their ideas in the digital age. He also emphasizes the importance of creating social campaigns for nonprofit organizations, a vital aspect of raising awareness on important issues.
Be the Game Changer: Ramon Rahangmetan introduces another project, "Be the Game Changer," which builds on social media strategies and offline promotional materials. He explores how students can brand themselves as influencers and make a positive impact on society.
Armenian State University of Economics Partnership: Ramon Rahangmetan provides insight into the partnership between CoSE and the Armenian State University of Economics. Through this collaboration, training courses are developed, emphasizing climate-related topics and circular business models. The importance of gaining insights into an organization's internal operations is highlighted, as well as the role of students in shaping sustainable business models.
Sustainability in Facilities: The video shifts its focus to sustainability within educational facilities. Ramon Rahangmetan discusses proven solutions that institutions can implement to enhance sustainability. These solutions include analyzing key performance indicators, improving energy efficiency, using eco-friendly cleaning supplies, implementing preventive maintenance measures, practicing recyclable practices, and fostering communication between workers and stakeholders.
AI4SDGs Webinar Series: Ramon Rahangmetan introduces the AI4SDGs webinar series, a collaboration with the United Nations Development Program and the UN Environmental Program. He explains the format of these webinars, which feature speakers from diverse backgrounds discussing AI solutions for sustainable development goals. These webinars serve as a platform to understand the potential of AI in addressing critical global challenges.
EU Digital Single Market: Ramon Rahangmetan explores the EU Digital Single Market's three main pillars: better access for consumers and businesses to digital goods and services, creating a healthy competitive environment, and maximizing the growth potential of the digital economy. He emphasizes the importance of understanding and adapting to these policy initiatives, particularly for startups and businesses.
EU Green Deal: The video delves into the EU Green Deal, with a focus on policy areas such as the circular economy, Farm to Fork strategy, energy taxation directive, European forest strategy, clean technologies, and sustainable smart mobility. Ramon Rahangmetan underscores Europe's commitment to sustainability and its goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050.
EU Funds: Ramon Rahangmetan provides insights into the various EU funds available for environmental and climate action. These funds include the European Regional Development Fund, European Social Fund, Cohesion Fund, European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, and the European Maritime and Fishery Fund. He highlights their roles in supporting sustainability initiatives across Europe.
Final Considerations: The video concludes with a heartfelt thank you from Ramon Rahangmetan, encouraging viewers to reach out to the Circle of Sustainable Europe. He invites further engagement through social media platforms and the organization's website, leaving the audience inspired to take action towards a more sustainable future.
This comprehensive video presentation by Ramon Rahangmetan is a treasure trove of knowledge, providing a holistic understanding of sustainability in facilities, the power of ERASMUS Plus projects, the potential of AI for SDGs, and Europe's commitment to a greener future. With Ramon's expertise and passion, viewers are sure to gain invaluable insights into building a sustainable world for generations to come.
Speakers Info
Ramon Rahangmetan Co-Founder & Secretary-Treasurer at Circle of Sustainable Europe (CoSE)
Ramon Rahangmetan, with a rich background in Urban Sustainable Development and Business Management, stands as the Co-founder of Circle of Sustainable Europe (CoSE), headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. CoSE is a renowned international NGO committed to championing the cause of sustainable development, particularly in alignment with the EU Green Deal. Ramon Rahangmetan's dedication extends to addressing social inclusion and nurturing digital skills among the youth, vital pillars of a sustainable future.
Session Script: Sustainability in Facilities
Introduction
Contents
In this presentation, I will talk about Erasmus Plus projects, and why they're essential not only for students but also for green facilities and sustainable development in general. I'm going to talk about university partnerships and examples we have with certain universities who we do these projects with. Third point AI4STDs Webinar series in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program. And the UN environmental program. We do this to bring the topic of AI closer to watch the people and what opportunities it has to implement the SDGs. And the fourth point is sustainable facilities and what facilities can do to be more sustainable inside there, let's say, the environment, but also for the students and teachers.
Who am I?
My name is Ramon Rahangmetan. I'm the co-founder and treasurer of Central Europe, Belgium, and Brussels. We are one of the leading international nongovernment organizations, organizing Erasmus Plus projects and advocating for general sustainable developments. I'm also an accredited lobbyist at the European Parliament in Brussels and Strasbourg, independent of our organization. And I'm a high school teacher on the topic of “digital skills” and “sustainable development”, which I like to do to share the knowledge not only with people that are older than me but also the people that are younger than me to make the complex, more simple.
So first, we're going to talk about we're going to talk a little bit more about ERASMUS Plus international exchanges and why it's essential for universities. Then we're going to continue on the list forward.
ERASMUS+ Projects
Why are Erasmus Plus projects important? To promote learning and mobility of individuals and cooperative groups, the students, when they go into these exchanges from a specific university, gain new knowledge, skills, and cultural understanding of what it means to be outside the country. And Erasmus Plus, financed by the European Commission, as you can see at the top right corner, offers these Europeans an even broader perspective on their career path when it comes down to studying or following a training or even a cultural exchange. And that's why we organize these programs in the organization. It's also a form of the second point, non-formal, and formal innovative learning and education. So there are different ways how you can educate students, and one of them is non-formal, which is more accessible to what the topic can be. So each case or each exchange has a different matter. For example, I'm now in Latvia, focused on social media and volunteering. So why should young people volunteer, Students volunteer to gain better skills but also have better career developments? So that's why important to know what young people can do to get on these exchanges. But also the third and essential part is inclusion and diversity amongst other partner countries. Europe is, of course, a vast continent. Still, from abroad, we are open as an organization to receive different kinds of knowledge and innovation regarding bridging the gap between Erasmus and sustainable development. So that's why we organize these exchanges also to learn what's outside of Europe.
Tools for Social Visibility
One of the projects was called tools for social visibility, focusing on social media marketing and strategies for students, mainly from a European perspective. But this way, students could learn how to filter the right information because nowadays, we live in a world where a lot of information is overwhelming to a student, but how can a student learn to research and also market their service or their product if they want to, let's say, for example, start a business on social media? So that's why we also give this training to youngsters to have an understanding of what it means to be social, active in the digital sphere of influence, boost for offline promotion, materials, and project branding. So we also offer students to learn more about how to brand themselves as, for example, influencers, which could be from University, but also with a larger audience, because you are also influencing other people when you are studying in a facility doesn't matter where you're influencing or controlling someone.
So you need to know what tips, tricks, and tools to enhance the possibility of socially influencing other people when you want to communicate your idea. So that's what we learn from other students as well. And lastly, create a social campaign for a nonprofit organization. And as we are a nonprofit, but also partnering up with other nonprofits in terms of these projects. We also want these students to learn how to raise awareness about a specific topic, which could be just an example of syllable development and other issues. So we learned some strategies to do that more effectively within their local community, or even their regional influence, a municipality. So we bridge different kinds of tactics. Here, we use different types of tactics as a way to communicate this message forward. And this project was all about how to communicate more effectively using the right digital tools.
Be the game changer
The second project was a game changer, learning about social media strategies and also part of this way of communicating your message more clearly, using offline promotional materials, which is also focused around the last project that we did.
Armenian State University of Economics
One of our partnerships is with the Armenian State University of Economics. And these examples are also mentioned within one of our documents in the final reports. And with this University, we develop training courses, which could also be online instead of offline. We organized on participation in climate topic, which is, of course, related to sustainable development goals that we stand for; we want to raise awareness more about what happens on a more global scale to the students and what they can do. To be more actively involved locally, if there are initiatives that are focused on the climate-related topic, they can join the IT initiative and gain more insights into how an organization is running. Because many times, it doesn't matter what the organization stands for but how they operate. For that topic, let's say, you know, the active part internal of the organization, what happens internally, let's say, which is also essential to know, as a student, if you want to, let's say excel in certain career developments, collaboration, which started regarding circular business models, we also are open for ideas from students themselves, if they come up with ideas on how to, for example, have a recycling project or a business that's focused on waste management, and how they can impact it locally.
Like as I mentioned, as well, I'm not doing this alone; I have a whole team behind me that is also doing the things I need to do and educate youngsters and students within these universities on how to come up with circular business models within their field of expertise, exchange of topic readings, to literature, presentations, and visibility. Visibility is also very important for students because most of the time, when students have a great idea, we notice that they get a little bit shy and don't want to express themselves in it. But it's essential for them to know that once you bridge that barrier of being more confident and you dare to share your ideas, then the proper infrastructure needs to be in place for that student to execute the vision. So that's why we also work with the Armenian state university of economics on how to develop those soft skills, you could say, but also when to be more on the stage and try to be a public speaker, for example, for your ideas. So that's more has more to do with the students themselves. We also collaborate on the AI4SDGs webinar series, which I mentioned before; it's in partnership with United Nations Environmental and development program. This is an example of what we do in terms of partnerships with one of the universities we work with.
Sustainability in facilities
And sustainability in facilities in general highlighted are proven solutions; let's say what the facility can do is they can analyze the critical performance.
We noticed, working with, for example, universities in the Netherlands, that they had great key performances. But they were not executed in a way that was on time, let's say, because we all know the SDGs have a deadline, which is the plan 2030. And we all want to have specific targets to be hits, let's say, not only nationally but also from University on facility perspective. So that's why it's essential to first analyze key performances from universities to update the energy efficiency; there are a lot of technologies out there that can help universities to be more energy efficient, not only for consumers but also for universities in general, use eco-friendly cleaning supplies, we have also an example of some projects that we did on how can University use more eco-friendly cleaning supplies with students helping them to clean also, so they choose to become part of projects inside the Armenia State University of Economics, how to make it more sustainable in general, that's also a meaningful way how to engage with students and teachers together. Before preventive maintenance, prevention is the best way to, of course, to, let's say, disastrous outcomes. So also be aware of how you would like to prevent certain things and also be able to measure those outcomes including recyclable practices, which is also interesting, as well as students that are aware of their environment, but also inside the University that they need to clean up, what they use, are really small examples.
But usually, all things start small. And once you students can do that, do those things in a small way, that they're also going to be, let's say idealistic more about the future. And also, think about ways to limit their footprint, let's say, on the planet in general. So let's start with small things. But eventually, it will have better outcomes in the future. And, of course, organizing meetings with workers. There's also, of course, a university committee, and be aware of the workers that are there that are working in those environments and universities, and spreading the knowledge of what it means to be sustainable in general, because it starts with the workers as well, that are present at universities, with teachers, but also with cleaners and board members that need to be more aware of their carbon footprint, but also the SDGs in general, because it offers a new way of thinking that provides young people to share their ideas. But it also contributes to, let's say, engaging with the local communities on what things they can do even better.
AI4SDGs webinar series
From a talk a little bit about the AI4SDGs webinar series that I talked about, we often invite speakers from different kinds of countries to speak about their AI solutions for specific SDGs, which could be one or multiple. And if there's an interest in the speaker, we always like to hear their insights on tackling this issue with the AI solution. And this is the format that we use. We welcome first every speaker with an extensive introduction; there's a storytelling session. So we have five speakers doing storytelling sessions and presentations, and each speaker has 15 minutes to tell about their impact with the half with the AI solution, which could be very general; of course, we have a q&a session. So we have a chance for the audience to ask questions and answers, and we have a break. And the second part is a panel discussion. Also, five speakers and panelists today will share their insights about how AI can help the SDGs in general, and the ideas are very varied. They're very diverse, which of course, it's different in every sector. But we have some great ideas already.
And we also record these sessions. So if you would be interested to see some of the webinar series or episodes, let me know. I can also share the link with you. And then we have a q&a session again about the panel discussion, and then the end of the event and maybe some collaborations we can send forward. But the primary goal of this webinar is to clearly understand what AI means, what it can do, and how it would impact the SDGs. Those are the three main objectives of this webinar, and we are proud to work with the UN that is supporting us with their video conference and the audience that they can provide us with in combination with the speakers we get. Hence, it's exciting to work with them on this topic.
Storytelling session
As I mentioned, the first session is focused on AI change makers and intuition. Here's our chief, the SDGs; I said it's very varied. So it's a different way of seeing it being implemented. But in general, we call it a storytelling session because it is a story from a presentation from a person behind the business. And that's why we call it a storytelling session. And that's what makes it so attractive to attend the SDGs webinar series if you haven't any experience in that. It's also interesting to know what AI can provide and how to tackle the SDGs.
Panel discussion session
And then, the second session aims to have fruitful discussions with people from different organizations that worked with people implementing the AI solution toward the SDGs. And that's also an exciting way to see how this conversation dynamic is going when we prepare questions beforehand, and also for them to know what their view on this topic of AI is because it has a significant impact on our lives. Actually, as a school teacher, I already noticed children working with AI, specifically algorithms, but also knowing how to build their programs or apps with it. So it's interesting to know what the future holds. And that's why we want to bridge that gap. And to bring AI to the forefront for people to see what is possible. And also in terms of tackling the SDGs, which is important.
Then we go to the next phase.
EU digital signal market
So then we talked about an EU Data Single Market, which is the infrastructure, or let's say the policy initiatives from the European Commission, to have this infrastructure of 5g, for example, ready, but also how do we as citizens or as business or as universities are being facilities, handled this new policy that is going to be implemented or is already being implemented since 2021. Last year. And there are three main pillars of the single digital market: access, better access for consumers and businesses to digital goods and services across Europe. Of course, there's a privacy issue. And we also need to think about these privacy issues when it comes to digital advocacy. And as lobbyists, I see that young person who doesn't know what this new policy holds for their startup or business. So it's important also to share this knowledge about what is happening from a European perspective because Europe, in general, has one of the strongest rules and regulations when it comes down to policies, and environments, which is one of the most significant points of bullish in the digital single market act, an economy, and society maximizing the growth potential of the digital economy to have a healthy competition between businesses, but also to raise more awareness about the topic of the policy initiatives.
EU Green Deal
We're focused on the circular economy, which is more of an action plan, let's say, tied to the SDGs. There are some policy areas here, which are economic action plans, focused on more, how can this how can business be more circular in their business model, we have the Farm to Fork strategy, which is focused on agriculture and farming, energy taxation directive, which is more focused on taxation on specific goods or services, European forest strategy, clean technologies, and sustainable smart mobility. So these are the, let's say, six areas where European Commission is focused on when it comes down to the EU Green Deal. And you can also look at it, of course, online, but it's essential to notice that Europe is working on being more sustainable and that they'll want to be climate neutral in 2050. And that's an important message to get across and also to be an example for other continents and how to tackle the SDGs In general.
EU funds
We have two EU funds; there are five major funds in terms of the environment and climate action. The European Regional Development Fund is more focused on a regional perspective, as mentioned. So with provinces and Netherlands, we have, for example, areas. And so they work together on getting certain funds for specific projects or models of business that they can invest in and eventually become more sustainable in the outcome, which is more focused on proposals that I get. And it's also interesting to also be a partner in specific consortiums such as European Social Fund, which is more focused on the employment fund in Europe, and the cohesion funds, which is focused on transportation, mobility fund, European agriculture funds for rural development, which is again, it's an aspect of the fund From the farmer fork initiative like we mentioned before from the Green Deal, and this is more of the funds for that, for agriculture in general. And we have the European Maritime and Fishery Fund, which is also one of Europe's most vital funds. And especially when it comes down to seeing the ocean life, which is precious for Europe in general and other businesses that want to invest in that area.
