The “Talk series – Porto Towards Carbon Neutrality 2030” is an initiative organized by the Porto City Council, featuring 10 sessions for clarification and debate related to sustainability, decarbonization, and climate transition in the context of cities’ carbon neutrality. The fifth session took place last Thursday, June 15, at the Porto Innovation Hub, with the theme “Community Engagement.”

Daniel Freitas, Director for Carbon Neutrality in Porto, was the event’s moderator, which included Ana Gabriela Cabilhas, President of the Academic Federation of Porto; Helena Silva, Executive Director of Vintage for a Cause, and João Leão, Co-founder of VIVALab.

Each speaker had the opportunity to present, followed by a debate and clarification with the attending audience.

The session began with an awards ceremony for the organizations that distinguished themselves in terms of environmental sustainability at the Porto Burning of the Ribbons of 2023. These awards were given as part of the Recycling Contest and the Stall + Friendly Prize.

The Recycling Contest, promoted by FAP in partnership with LIPOR and Porto Ambiente, awarded the two Students Associations that managed to promote, with the community, the largest collection of selective waste until the Burning period. In first place, with 2049kg of waste collected, was the Students Association of the Higher Institute of Accounting and Administration of Porto (AEISCAP), and in second place, with 1760kg, was the Students Association of Portucalense University (AEUPT). The 1st prize was presented by the Deputy Mayor of Porto, Filipe Araújo.

The Stall + Friendly Award, which rewards the stalls that have contributed to waste collection in the venue and played a significant role in raising awareness and preventing risky behavior during the event, was awarded to the Students Association of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Porto (AEFPCEUP).

“People have a very significant role in how they want to change the planet and in how they want to ensure that there is an increasingly smaller impact in terms of the ecosystem,” Daniel Freitas said at the opening of the session, after presenting these awards.

The role of FAP and the student community in sustainability

The first intervention of this Conversation Cycle was by Ana Gabriela Cabilhas, President of the Academic Federation of Porto, who began by saying, “We have, on the one hand, involvement with our associates – the various student associations of the Academy of Porto – that help us multiply various activities in different institutions, and, on the other hand, direct involvement with our student community. We therefore have two major angles of action.”

Last year was the European Year of Youth, which brought the topic of climate action to the center of discussion with youth. In addition to this, as part of the actions that FAP develops in its daily activities (such as the FAP Community Centers in the Neighborhood – two centers that promote volunteering projects with disadvantaged communities in the city of Porto), it has promoted environmental awareness actions or more specific activities, such as beach clean-up.

“In 2018, FAP was the first student structure and the Burning of the Ribbons of Porto was the first academic event to use the green label. But, in recent years, we have a set of challenges in accessing this funding, since the application period is not aligned with the Burning of the Ribbons and, therefore, it is only limited to events and festivals that take place in the summer period, and our event takes place in May,” warned the president of FAP.

She added that an event like the Burning of the Ribbons of Porto “has an impact on the production of greenhouse gases and on waste production,” and for this reason, the launch of the Burning of the Ribbons of Porto Pact for the Climate was important, a holistic commitment of responsibilities and environmental demands involving students, partners, and suppliers of the Burning of the Ribbons.

To align with these responsibilities, Ana Gabriela Cabilhas highlighted some measures implemented by FAP in this regard, such as access to public transportation and its free-of-charge nature, providing maps and schedules, discounts with CP, and discouragement of the use of private cars by suppressing parking.

Other measures are related to energy efficiency management, the prioritization of eco-friendly products throughout the venue, the transition from chemical toilets to sanitary facilities connected to the venue’s sanitation, and the reuse of rainwater for the same purpose. “Also in this scope, they implemented a recycling system in each stall, which had bags for their recycling and, at the end of each night, they had to come back to deposit their waste, and this follow-up was done by an environmental commission with student volunteers for this purpose, supported by Porto Ambiente,” she said.

The elimination of non-reusable plastic, the implementation of reusable cups, the dematerialization of tickets and physical ticket offices, and environmental awareness were other measures highlighted by the responsible person, which resulted in recycling about 70% of the generated waste.

Reuse of products and plastic recycling

In this Conversation Cycle, there was also an opportunity to learn about the VIVALab project, a digital fabrication lab in Porto that belongs to a network with more than 2000 fab labs around the world.

“How will the cities of the future exist? We want locally productive cities, globally connected. And what does this mean? When we have this type of labs spread around the world, with the same machines as a basis, what I design in Porto, I can continue elsewhere,” explained João Leão, Co-founder of VIVALab.

In his intervention, João Leão presented three community projects developed by the lab. Among them is Makers vs Covid, a project developed in partnership with Santo António Hospital, São João Hospital, and Porto City Council. “This project happened because we realized that more than 20% of health professionals were getting infected because they didn’t have access to PPEs. So, VIVALab managed, in less than a week, to manufacture the PPEs they needed. How did we do this? With distributed manufacturing. We had 24 seamstresses at home, 12 makers with 3D printers spread around the city that printed the glasses’ stems, and then, within VIVALab, we assembled and distributed with the help of Porto City Council.”

“We also have the Repair Café, an initiative aimed at providing a space for people to repair any object. There is a network of institutions in the city that come together to teach people how to repair their computers, for example, but also other types of objects. Lastly, we have the Precious Plastic project, which, with the help of four machines that anyone can build, recycles plastic locally. In total, we have already recycled more than a ton,” he added.

This space is mainly an open door to the community and the public of all ages. The versatility of projects and their work around repairability and reuse are crucial to engage visitors who can later become active agents and contributors to the digital fabrication community.

Fashion can also be sustainable

The last intervention of the event was by Helena Silva, Executive Director of Vintage for a Cause, in which she presented her business – Vintage for a Cause – as a “social business”, as it promotes the well-being of people, both for the environmental contribution and for attracting talent that is normally undervalued.

“About 200 tons of clothing waste goes to the garbage in Portugal and only 1% is recycled. We flag the waste, which we see as resources in the pre-consumption phase, choose textile companies that have a purpose aligned with ours and buy the waste by the kilo. We then develop clothing with timeless design, which we co-create in collaboration with national and international designers,” explained the person in charge of Vintage for a Cause.

The idea of this business is, then, to reuse the “dead stock” from companies and, with it, develop new pieces that, in fact, are reused and sustainable. This is because it is not necessary to produce more fabric and all the associated process, which causes various greenhouse gases and environmental impacts.

All pieces of the “dead stock” are then given to senior seamstresses, over 50 years old and out of active life, creating a very interesting purpose within this community, capable of generating impact inside and outside of it. “Then we sell the new pieces to a growing community of consumers who are more demanding and discerning in what they buy,” she concluded.