VU Amsterdam organised the first edition of the Sustainability Café with the people of EthnoBorrel. Read how the event was in the eyes of student reporter Charlotte Schreuders.

The sphere was relaxed with food and drinks, and people felt free to talk about their own experiences and point-of-view about sustainability and anthropology. Students, alumni and teachers from the Department of Anthropology and the Department of Organization Sciences, as well as developers and designers attended the event.

Walter Faaij explained about his work as a Consultant Cultural Change and the work he does for different organizations. He advises companies and organizations that want to  become more sustainable, but do not know how to achieve that. As an anthropologist, he helps people in companies with the cultural change that is needed for the entire company to become more sustainable.

After the presentation by Walter a discussion took place among attendees, about whether and how anthropologists can advise companies and mainly about their role and responsibility in stimulating behavioural change. Thanks to the diverse backgrounds of attendees, the discussion had interesting different points-of-view, so that points raised by one made other attendees think about other perspectives. The difference in age, function and educational background was the ideal base for the interesting dialogue that took place. This interaction between social scientists and developers, designers and other professionals is a great example of the dialogue that is needed to change our current ways of thinking about sustainability.

The event was organised as one of the PEOPLE project’s Sustainable Cafés on 27 February 2017. Read more about PEOPLE’s Cafés and other activities!