The Erasmus Student Network has among its main objectives contributing to sustainable development and environmental sustainability through learning mobility and civic engagement. Our local associations organise hundreds of activities in the field of environmental sustainability, helping international students to increase their awareness of the issue while developing green skills and interacting with local communities. The activities.esn.org platform gathers many of these initiatives, improving our social impact measurement efforts. The impact seems clear, with the preliminary results of the ESN Survey 2021 showing that Erasmus students report a significant gain in their interest in environmental sustainability during their exchanges. However, there is huge untapped potential to make Erasmus a real booster of green active citizenship.
The Green Erasmus project, coordinated by ESN, has provided evidence of the challenges and opportunities to make Erasmus mobilities greener. ESN believes that measures to make the programme more sustainable should go hand in hand with a focus on inclusion and civic engagement, and a special focus on the diversity of realities that students face depending on the city of origin and personal background. ESN hopes that the findings of the Green Erasmus project will inform the creation of evidence-based measures that respond to the needs of the students, and looks forward to supporting all the efforts to make the programme greener.
