Activiteiten

04-06-2008

Discussion Louny-Barendrecht on environment issues may 2008

The goal of putting environment on the agenda as a central theme during the visit of the Czech delegation was to encourage the discussion between visitors and guest family’s on this subject and to exchange ideas.  During their stay in Barendrecht the Czech visitors had to complete a questionnaire comparing the situation at home with that in the guest family. The subjects were:

• Separation of waste
• Environment and use of car
• Use of energy at home
• Environment and food

On the last evening of the visit the results were presented to the whole group and discussed. The purpose was not to gather scientific built up conclusions and figures but the outcome gave enough possibilities for discussion

A for some Dutch surprising outcome was the slightly better result of the Louny delegation on the separation of waste, mainly because Louny inhabitants have the possibility to separate plastic bottles. The Dutch had a small advantage on the second subject.

 

Amazingly an average temperature in Czech houses is 0.5 ºC lower than in Dutch houses, but Dutch people use more low energy lamps. The answers showed the Czech are better awared of energy use at home. Also how to deal with energy and food the Czech had an advantage: a lot of them have a piece of land growing there own vegetables, etc.

Overall the Czech delegation had a slightly better result. Amazingly only a few Czech and Dutch answers were on the “improve” side of the questionnaire.

After a bright and intensive discussion two main conclusions could be drawn:

1. Both Dutch and Czech people are good liars
2. We all can improve our behaviour on the several environment issues

 

The new approach of attaching a central theme to a visit was warmly welcomed by the Czech delegation. A follow up during the counter visit to Louny will be discussed over there creating the possibility to further explore this subject. A lot of questions are left. An interesting follow up might be quantifying and comparing the use of energy and production of waste per family in Louny and Barendrecht.

Barendrecht, 4 June 2008

Klaas Mulder

Questionnaire in Czech and Dutch Language