What we do

Sustainable Utrecht 2030

Social justice in practice

Students and volunteers ask citizens of Utrecht with a small purse how they want to live sustainably. In teams, students, the municipality, companies and social organizations come up with combinations of affordable and sustainable products, services and municipal schemes to make the wishes possible. Poverty reduction and care for nature and the environment go hand in hand.

Ongoing activities

Until the end of 2023, we will discuss sustainable living with a small budget with at least 500 citizens of Utrecht, in thirty or more meetings spread across the city. Check the calendar to see when we will be near you (more dates will follow soon). In Lunetten, the focus is on subsidized organic groceries. Would you like a vegetable garden or can someone maintain a vegetable garden in your garden? Let us know.

We also want to talk to young people, asylum seekers and other groups of Utrecht residents with a limited budget. If you also want to join the conversation, go to one of our meetings or contact ineke@duurzaamutrecht2030.nl



Spring 2023

In January 2023, five environmental science students from HAS University of Applied Sciences continued to work on their report 'Subsidiate sustainable fruit and vegetables'. Five Social Work students from Hogeschool Utrecht asked children and parents in Utrecht South how they live sustainably and created a 'threesome game' to engage in a playful conversation. Ten students from the Bonifatius College tried this game on February 16 and wrote pieces for Instagram. Four other social trainees also wrote such pieces, while three young people helped people in their garden through Serve the City.

From February to April, five new HU students of Social Work developed a manual to get people to garden together. On May 9, another group of five students talked to visitors of the give-away shop of the Limoenz Foundation in Lunetten. An intern from Utrecht University is developing advice on communication between energy coaches and residents of social housing. On March 17, 30 people brainstormed in the Domkerk about the next steps towards sustainable living with a small budget.

In order to prepare for these steps, we held dozens of discussions with partners, and on April 25, for example, we talked to sextons of the St Martinus parish about a greener church. The Martinus  magazine, radio Maria and WIJS published interviews about Sustainable Utrecht 2030.

Who came up with the project?

Church-involved participants in the workshop Sustainable Utrecht 2030, 09-10-21 in the Dominicuskerk, subsidized by the municipality of Utrecht via Utrecht4GlobalGoals.


Pilot spring 2022

Between April and June 2022, HU Social Work students and Ineke Malsch asked visitors to community centers and community gardens for their opinion.

Autumn 2022

We further investigated three of these six tips between September 3 and November 11, 2022:

  1. Support sustainability ambassadors in neighborhoodsConnect couples around vegetable gardensSubsidize organic groceriesMake public transport more accessibleInsert energy adviceInvest in self-awareness



Highlights 2022:

Last year, we have talked with around five hundred citizens of Utrecht about sustainable living with a small purse. They told us how they already take sustainability into account, for example by saving energy, recycling clothes, or helping each other with repairs. Several people wanted to live more sustainably, for which they need help from the municipality, housing corporations or other organizations.

Last autumn we were looking for ways to make some wishes possible. With social work students from the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, we brought people without a garden who like to garden in contact with people with a garden they cannot maintain. In the coming period, we want to find out whether people who are on the waiting list for an allotment garden can keep a vegetable garden in someone else's garden, sharing the proceeds.

Together with the Voedselbank Overvecht and Energie U, we were looking for volunteers who make the homes of clients of the food bank more energy efficient. They stick radiator foil, apply draft strips and turn in LED lamps. They also give advice on saving energy, for example by turning down the heating or taking a shorter shower. Soon, more voluntary energy advisors will start helping other families.

Until the end of January, students of environmental science at HAS University of Applied Sciences in Den Bosch are investigating how people with a small purse in Lunetten can get subsidised sustainable fruit and vegetables from local growers. Afterwards, we will try to put the students' plans into practice.

Why did we take the initiative for Duurzaam Utrecht 2030 – Live sustainably with a small purse? The municipality of Utrecht and other governments want to achieve the seventeen sustainable development goals by 2030. They want to fight poverty and protect the environment. That is only possible if everyone helps; rich AND poor. But it is not clear what people are already doing themselves, and how they want to live more sustainably. We therefore ask people with a small purse how they want to live sustainably themselves and involve politicians, civil servants, educational institutions, social partners, and citizens in making these wishes possible. Between 9 October 2021 and 11 November 2022, 42 meetings were held at 30 locations throughout the city of Utrecht. Approximately 150 volunteers were involved, nineteen students and two pupils. In addition, we reached about one million people through newspapers, radio, city TV and partners' own media. The municipality of Utrecht (Initiatievenfonds), Kerk en Wereld and Katholieke Caritas Utrecht have subsidized the project, and dozens of organizations have participated in it. Duurzaam Utrecht 2030 won the third prize of the Mantel van Sint Maarten 2022. We are enthusiastically moving forward in 2023. Do you have an idea, or do you want to help? Contact ineke@duurzaamutrecht2030.nl

Download the unofficial machine translations in English of the reports of the project in Spring and Autumn 2022. The Dutch versions are leading.

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