Greenades – List for SPE – The Sundial Press

The Greenades executive team. Photo: Simone Richler//The Sundial Press

Interview by Jacob Hartley and Aurore Laborie

President: Laura Tirollois

Vice President: Donko Betzhold

Click here to view their Facebook page.

Introduce your platform to the campus. What do you want us to know?

We are the Greenades, running to become Sciences Po Environment Bureau next year. We are fourteen very different people, all linked by their genuine interest for ecology and common desire to make it at the centre of our campus’ life (and beyond). Ecology is not an austere and extremist ideology. It is a passionating issue linked to natural as well as social sciences, which we can explore in multiple ways. It is also a very concrete issue which needs to be tackled in our everyday life, most of the time in a fun and inclusive way.

We want you to know that we acknowledge that students have reserves on our association and on our role. That’s even where our list name and concept comes from, introducing dynamism, and a need for quick, efficient and radical changes that allow a renewal. Basically we want to blow your mind 😉

About our list (who we are? why are we qualified to become SPE’s new bureau? why we chose the name Greenades) / about the specificity, uniqueness of our project

The Greenades agents are a team of very different people united by common agreements. We all aim to be a dynamic/ outstanding, inclusive, unavoidable player in Sciences Po’s student life with ecology present in students’ everyday life.

Honestly we did not know each other that well before this campaign, and the nights that some of us spent without sleeping brought us to get along and now we really have a conscience of ourselves as a group. Some of us were babies SPE, some tried, others just were not, and this really came to be strength : babies could share experiences and formations whereas others could give them a more objective feedback about SPE and its role on campus, introducing interesting and necessary debates. All of us were brought at some point to question everything we did this year, even the way we live hearing other’s habits. And this is exactly what we want to bring and extend to the campus : it is our environment that brought us to become a team and work together.

Our qualification and specificity surely come from that group cohesion. Now we actually have a fun time hanging out together and appreciate to collaborate on projects. Some of us still have more experiences linked to the environmental cause, and always have made it a priority in their lives, which notably gave legitimacy for Laur credit to different types of environment : campus but also the city of Reims, parties and debates, but also well-being (isn’t your body your first environment). Environment is also about giving time to things, we want to help students to make space around them for what matters the most to them.

What do you propose to do exactly, and how?

We want to change SPE’s place in Sciences Po. Stop being seen as the fourth Bureau and start being one fourth. This is not totally about changing everything that has been put into place until now, especially because many of us are former babies who made the list because they of what they were transmitted. We want to pursue that goal of integration that they implemented. Yet we think that SPE needs 1) structural reforms to attain more people : everyone who wants to get involved in a project should be able to do so, 2) more importance and credit : we want to deconstruct this “bio & vegan only” and green image of the association. People should only do things they’re truly convinced of (and we are here to help them though those questionings) and be rewarded for that whatever the effort if it’s made in the same direction ! 3) to be an information center so that clichés and stereotypes disappear once and for all. We only aim at giving students elements to think, help them to face true facts and select important informations for them, so that they can make their own opinion.

Change the structure of SPE: Second, what do you intend change (it can be big or small) from this year to next year, if you were to succeed in the election?

Concretely, we have three very new projects :

the biggest will be a total change of SPE’s structure : make it not only a very active bureau, but also a larger association where people can sign in. Once a month we’ll have a general assembly to welcome new adherents and form groups-projects. Anyone can sign in ! SPE should be able to involve anyone willing to contribute to environment protection, including as many students as possible thanks to our this general assembly system.
tend toward zero waste on campus with the creation of a pole dedicated to that, including not only concrete projects but also sensibilisation and information.
projects including the city of Reims, to crate that link between Sciences Po students and the Rémois, united by that common environment. This takes into account regular “disco soups” to which everyone is invited, as well as a new initiative called the “Green Cordées”. This project consists in visiting high school and middle school students, as the association dedicated to that on campus proposed this year, wto start discussions with them. Another time we don’t want to influence them, or to give them all of the answers ; only to raise questions and indicate key issues.

For the rest of the poles and projects, we also want you to know that yes, we want to dedicate events, moments, parties and debates to the environmental cause. Yet we all share the vision that this is not enough for a good SPE : we want to be present on campus and play a role in the major campus’ events, to implement a sort of balance. For example, limiting waste on gala and not only debating on the role of waste. Help people to cure their hangover. Participate in the to-be AS’s healthy cooking workshops. Life is not divided into four poles, and generally you’ll party and recycle in the same day, especially given the busy timetables of the students !

What are the events you want to highlight that your list will offer this week?

We’re especially excited about our trip to a natural reserve near Troyes on Saturday the 21th, to the Lake and Forest d’Orient, where we’ll go hiking, observing birds, riding horse and kayaking for the bravest. We organise it with three other lists, and it could be an event we’ll organise as well next year. We have organised this week other events in partnerships with other lists, especially parties, but also meals, artistic and sportive events, to show how useful can be SPE in making events more eco-friendly and yet, spirited: the Opening Woodstock party, the Grammy Awards and the Appartathon, and our veggie barbecue in Saint Remi on Saturday 21. But if we like planning outstanding events, we still prefer chiller ones, where we can really meet people and talk. That’s why we’re organising 4 dinners in our appartments and a musical apéro at la Végé’table, followed by the screening of the movie Tomorrow by Cyril Dion, which will be followed by a debate and we’ll prepare our favourite veggie recipes.

Looking forward to see you!!