Professor Muller, Wolf Stottele and students discussing their energy efficient student housing designs at the Technical University of Dortmund
Students from the Nature School in Prague doing research in the Greenbelt during a visit to the Centre

Graduate Sustainability Course
This new, one-semester course was developed and taught at the University of New York in Prague (UNYP) by Neela Winkelmann, Ph.D.  Organizational assistance was provided by Nová Energie, a non-profit environmental NGO from Prague. Patron of the course was Senator Martin Mejstřík of the Czech Republic, former student leader of the Velvet Revolution. The Centre for the Future provided financial support and free use of our Slavonice facilities.

The course educates future professionals in international business and economics on issues of sustainability. The course creators believe that the decision makers of tomorrow need to be acquainted with environmental and sustainability concerns. The 2008 course was attended by 18 undergraduate and graduate students from three UNYP programs: Business Administration, International and European Economic Studies and Communication & Mass Media. For most of them, this was their first exposure to the subject.

Student Housing Design Project
Created in cooperation with the Department of Environmental Architecture at the Technical University of Dortmund and architect Wolff Stottele of Diamant Consulting. The students developed energy efficient designs for student housing on a real site in Slavonice.

International Cross Border Projects
are designed to foster sustainability communication / diplomacy and raise local awareness: in cooperation with the Green Parties of Czech and Austria we organized the first regional cross border meeting concerning the development of sustainable traffic infrastructure in Slavonice. This resulted in the founding of the Bahn Frei (Train Go!) initiative which has successfully lobbied for putting the issue of public transport back on the political agenda. On the 22nd of July, 2008, representatives of the initiative (including our Director) met with the Austrian Transport Minister to discuss this sensitive issue and look for possible solutions regarding the ever growing pressure of truck traffic across the border, its negative impact on environmental concerns, and the populations general quality of life.

International Renewable Energy Debate
Together with our partner institution Waldviertel Energie Stammtisch (who has been a pioneer in the creation of major wind, solar and water power facilities in Austria, as well as in the tireless promotion of sustainability education for the last eighteen years), we held the first independent non-party political cross border symposium on the June 5, 2008 in Slavonice. The symposium was called: The European Greenbelt: from death zone to nurturing environment for a sustainable future.