ECOtwins Summer School in Sustainable Agriculture Practices

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The welcoming speech by Albert Carreras, director of ESCI-UPF, was the kick-start of this year’s ECOtwins Summer School, held both online and in person. The event was organized by the ESCI-UPF’s UNESCO Chair on Life Cycle and Climate Change. This joint summer school included instruction on various aspects to foster collaboration among partner countries and facilitate collective learning of techniques and methods for agroecological intensification and environmental impact evaluation.

Ivã Guidini Lopes, a post-doctoral researcher at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), taught the first class. He discussed recycled nutrients, focusing on composting, emphasizing insect frass and sustainable cultivation. The day ended with a lecture on pea-barley intercropping by Dr Ghaley, Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH).

The second day started with UCPH’s insightful analysis of field trial data, setting a solid foundation for the subsequent sessions by Saad Mir, PhD student at UCPH. Dr Ghaley continued the momentum with his expertise, delving deeper into the field trial findings and offering valuable insights. Then, Md Nasir Sani, PhD student at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), presented Sustainable Cultivation, highlighting the significance of digestate and biochar. After that, Professor Jean Yang from SLU presented the Plant Performance Assessment.

The following day, all the ECOtowins participants had the opportunity to visit Can Calopa, an organic wine and olive producer in Barcelona. The day after, Professor Pere Fullana, director of the UNESCO Chair in Life Cycle and Climate Change, discussed several topics, such as life cycle assessment and environmental impacts. Thereafter, Professor Oksana Tonkha from the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences in Ukraine (NUBiP) talked about the current state of Ukraine’s soil and methods of increasing its productivity.

On the fifth day, March 8th, Sergi Arfelis, a researcher at UNESCO Chair in Life Cycle and Climate Change, taught the presenters about carbon footprint. He covered different carbon footprint scopes at the product and organization levels. The day concluded with a practical session for the students on calculating the carbon footprint.

On the last day, Dr Roberto Daniel Ponce, the director of the Centre for Business Sustainability at the Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción in Chile (UCSC), lead a presentation about agriculture, water use, and climate change adaptation. The summer school concluded with a presentation by Dr Sahar Azarkamand, a researcher at the UNESCO Chair on Life Cycle and Climate Change, who delivered a lecture on life cycle costing and circular economy principles.

For more info about this project please check the ECOtwins web page.