Belgian education meets green innovation?

If it’s up to Jean-Jacques De Gucht (see picture), the 28-year old from Open Vld, a Flemish liberal political party in Belgium, universities as well as high schools will soon offer some new courses that focus on green innovation.

Yesterday (i.e. 11^th of March) Batibouw, the annual construction exhibition in Brussels, closed its doors after having welcomed some 310.000 visitors spread over 10 days. In the 2012 edition, one could not ignore the growing trend of green building, with “durability” being the new buzzword. Already today, there are green alternatives in nearly every branch of construction industry, ranging from insulation and heating to choice of materials and energy.The European Union also interferes with this matter, in search for a reduced ecological footprint, announcing strict standards for buildings in the near future.

All this obviously requires tons of expertise in the field of ecological techniques and alternatives. And that’s where the young Belgian politician comes into the picture. As Belgium is rather inadequate in this area at the moment, Mr. De Gucht wants to focus on education to let our country make an upward movement in the future. More technical training in high schools and new courses as well as an R&D department in universities, that’s what he proposes.

Even though nothing is decided yet. Thursday (i.e. 15the of March), the bill will be considered in front of the Flemish Parliament. 

Pieter