The environment around us is an essential part of human survival. At out faculty we understand how important the environment is to all of us.
Our university is again the most environmentally – friendly university in the Czech Republic.
A year of hard work has paid off. CZU ranked 31st in the Green Metric World University Rankings, and is thus one of the world leaders in terms of consideration for the environment.
Water management, education and waste management are the categories in which CZU received the highest ranking. As a result, according to a newly published ranking, the university jumped 15 places up from the previous year. “We had great success last year. The fact that we managed to move forward so much in a year is clear evidence that a year of our hard work has paid off. But we definitely want to keep moving forward,” says CZU Rector Petr Sklenička.
The ranking focused on 6 categories, including infrastructure, energy and climate change, waste, water, transport and teaching. Among the highly rated subcategories at CZU were, for example, the number of green areas on the campus, smart technologies implemented in buildings, the waste recycling program, water retention on the campus and the proportion of items focused on sustainability. “Our activities are constantly expanding in these areas. For example, we recently opened a new High-tech technology-learning pavilion, where an energy recovery system is used and, among other things, rainwater is drained into seepage wells,” explained the Rector.
More information you can find HERE.
New High-tech pavilion
Smaller study groups and state-of-the-art teaching and research facilities. All this can be found in the newly opened High-tech Educational Pavilion of the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences CULS in Prague. In addition to the innovative technological background, the building made of cast concrete, wood and glass also has a number of sustainable technologies, such as a green roof and a recuperation system for heating and cooling.
The roof is green and allows monitoring of trees and soil using sensors located in the soil and planted trees in the online mode. Heating and cooling is solved by an energy recovery system. The green roof also captures rainwater, which is not drained into the sewer but is returned to the ground at a depth of about 10 m by means of infiltration wells. "We place great emphasis on sustainability, especially when constructing new buildings. This applies in the case of the High-tech Pavilion, as well as the Pavilion of Tropical Agriculture, which is currently under construction,“ added CZU Rector, Professor Petr Sklenička. The entire Pavilion also meets the requirements for students with special needs and has complete barrier-free access.
More information about pavillion you can find HERE.
Project SUSTREE - Conservation and sustainable utilization of forest tree diversity in climate change
The promotion of climate change adaptation and the protection of the environment are central challenges of the CE region. With its manifold ecosystem services, CE forests are not only valuable reserves of biodiversity and pristine landscapes for recreation, but also provide renewable resources, bioenergy and offer employment in rural areas. In climate change, many forests are highly endangered, because the high velocity of change makes a natural adjustment of ecosystems impossible. Planting alternative tree species and utilizing the tree species’ intrinsic adaptive capacity are considered to be the most promising adaptation strategy. In CE approximately 900 million seedlings of the major tree species are being planted annually and would offer a unique opportunity to promote CC adaptation. However, the utilization of forest seeds and seedlings is mainly regulated on the national level without considering CC and certain CE countries even prohibit transnational seed transfer. Thus, present policy and regeneration practise prevent CC adaptation resulting in lower stability and productivity of future forests. Because all countries in CE are too restricted in size to handle the expected shift of climate and the necessary transfer of seed material, transnational cooperation is urgently required. Main objective of SUSTREE is the promotion of CC adaptation of forest ecosystems by fostering and enabling transnational adaptive management of forest genetic resources. Based on only nationally available knowledge of the tree species distribution and adaptive capacity, SUSTREE results in harmonized maps and guidelines for transnational seed transfer in CC and a common access to the national registers of forest reproductive material. Pilot applications in state forest enterprises will document the usability of the introduced tools for forest and natural resource managers as well as for policy makers and public bodies responsible for restoration and forest reforestation schemes.
A movie was made as a part of the project. You can find the movie HERE.
More information about project you can find HERE.
Remote Primary Forests
The REMOTE (REsearch on MOuntain TEmperate) Primary Forests project is a long-term international collaboration based on a network of permanent sample plots in the forests of central, eastern, and southeastern Europe. Since 2010, our international team has developed a system for monitoring select remaining primary forests in the region. These primary forests play a key role in providing habitat for many rare species and other important ecosystem functions. From our network of systematic permanent inventory plots, we collect extensive data on forest structure and long-term dynamics of individual trees. Dendroecological analyses, that is analyses of past tree growth based on tree rings from individual trees across tree, stand, and landscape levels, are a key part of our work. We have built one of the largest dendroecological databases in the world including thousands of individual trees. Our overall goal is to contribute to the long-term scientific understanding of those unique remaining primary forests. At the same time, we hope to contribute to the protection of those remaining primary forests because they are threatened from many sides.
More information you can find HERE.
We are holder of “ Wood is the Way” certificate
Our faculty has become a proud holder of the Wood is the Way certificate. This project, under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture, brings together people and companies who work with wood and love it.
The authorization was taken over by the Dean prof. Marek Turčáni on June 20, 2017 in the National House in Vinohrady. The aim of the project is to inform the public that the use of our important renewable raw material - wood - is the way to balance on Earth. More information about the project you can find HERE.