The 3rd Student Conference for Sustainability 2023, co-hosted by the German Embassy and Seoul National University, “Towards a Sustainable Campus”, was held at the Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University, and was simultaneously broadcast on the YouTube channel on November 21, 2023.

The 1st Student Conference for Sustainability was entitled ‘From Climate Change to Climate Crisis’ on November 25, 2021, and the 2nd conference on November 22, 2022, was entitled ‘Beyond Biodiversity Crisis to Sustainable Future’.

The German Embassy and three institutions of Seoul National University – Graduate School of International Agricultural Technology, Program in Global Environmental Management, and the Institute for Sustain Development) designed this conference to share students’ perspectives and ideas about a sustainable campus.

This conference was held as a student contest. Contest participants submitted abstracts and presentation videos on sustainable campuses, and a total of four teams were selected after an initial screening (judges: the German Embassy, the German Academic Exchange Service in Korea, and Seoul National University). The four selected teams were invited to an on-site conference to make presentations and receive awards. The selected team presented at an on-site conference about the university's efforts to realize sustainability. After the second evaluation at the on-site conference, the team, Eco Dorm Buddies who presented ‘Sustainable dormitory with the local community and students’ self-governance’ won the best prize. The winners are Yeongju Lee (Department of German Language Education, Jeongjae Lee (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Chang Gon Kim (Department of Forest Sciences), and So Myung Lim (Department of Forest Sciences).

In addition to the on-site conference, this event also held an online conference using the Metaverse platform (Gathertown). The Metaverse Conference was held simultaneously in Germany and Korea and consisted of various events introducing the host organizations and student presentation teams.

This event was a meaningful event linked to international efforts on sustainability. It was attended by the German Ambassador to Korea (H.E. Georg Schmidt), the Director of Information Centre Seoul, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) (Dr. Hokyeong Lee), the President of Seoul National University (Prof. Hong Rim Ryu), the Dean of the Graduate School of International Agricultural Technology (Prof. Doman Kim), and Director for the Institute for Sustainable Development (Prof. Ho Kim). As an organizing committee chair of the conference, Prof. Mi Sun Park of the Graduate School of International Agricultural Technology moderated the event.

This event is an opportunity to socially share various perspectives and solutions of Seoul National University students on a sustainable campus through a contest format and a new attempt to expand sustainability communication by combining on-site and metaverse conferences.

Photo 1 | Group photo taken before the final oral presentation. From the front row, from the right, MAJU SG (Lee Chuan Yu), Eco Dorm Buddies (Jeongjae Lee, So Myung Lim, Yeongju Lee, Chang Gon Kim), SNU Karbon Beschützer (Na Won Kang, Hyun Bin Moon), and Wear Plant (Jungwon Kwack) team.

Photo 2 | Group photo after the awards ceremony. From the front row, from the right, SNU Karbon Beschützer (Na Won Kang, Hyun Bin Moon), MAJU SG (Lee Chuan Yu), Wear Plant (Jungwon Kwack), and Eco Dorm Buddies (Jeongjae Lee, So Myung Lim, Yeongju Lee, Chang Gon Kim) team.