The Green Office VU is a semi-independent organization. Financially we are dependent on the VU, however, we are allowed to criticize the institution’s policy on sustainability when we deem it necessary. We always take a critical stance towards these policies and try to find ways to improve the level of sustainability at the university.

The Green Office VU is THE sustainability platform of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The goal of the Green Office VU is to create awareness about sustainability among the stakeholders of the VU; students, staff, businesses, Zuidas etc. We want to empower the community and we would like to show that living a sustainable lifestyle isn’t necessarily a difficult lifestyle. You can make a change by taking the smallest actions at any time.

The Green Office VU has Portfolio Coordinators, Green Officers, Project members and Thesis writers:
• Portfolio Coordinator: a portfolio coordinator is the coordinator of one of the four portfolios of the GO.VU. As a portfolio coordinator you’re responsible for this portfolio and the campaigns, events, projects etc. that are part of the portfolio. You can apply to become a portfolio coordinator twice a year (in November and May).
• Green Officer: the GO.VU has several Green Teams in which volunteers (Green Officers) participate to help the GO.VU achieve her goals. Depending on what you’d like to do, you can participate in one of the Green Teams. Anyone can become a Green Officer. You can apply to become one twice a year. This varies per year, so keep checking the website to stay updated.
• Project member: it might happen that you have an issue or an idea you would like to work on related to the VU and sustainability, but this issue or idea isn’t covered in a portfolio or Green Team. This way you can become a project member to work on the issue or the idea in which we will support you. The Green Office also posts on Social Media if there is a new project you can participate in.
• Thesis writers: are you interested in writing your thesis on a sustainable topic? It’s possible to do so at the GO.VU. We provide you with support and possible topics on sustainable matters.

Yes. The first Green Office was established in Maastricht. Now (2016), there are Green Offices in Rotterdam, Wageningen, Utrecht, Maastricht, Amsterdam and Groningen. There are also Green Offices in other countries such as Germany, Sweden, Italy and the UK. Each and every year, new Green Offices get established by which the Green Office Movement becomes bigger, better and stronger.
Would you like to set up a Green Office yourself and would you like to get some tips and tricks on how to do this? Please send an email to info@greenofficevu.nl and we might help you with some useful contacts.

Currently we have a main team consisting of a Manager and portfolio coordinators (Education, Research, Community Offline, Community Online, External Campus  and Internal Campus). Some of the portfolios have Green Teams who support the coordinator in the stewardship of their portfolio. The Green Teams consist of Green Officers who work for the Green Office VU on a voluntary basis. Currently we have approx. 30 volunteers.
We also have project members who help the Green Office VU set up projects.

There are multiple reasons why this could have occurred. First, take a look at the spambox of your email. Unfortunately, sometimes our emails get blocked by your email host. Second, please send an email to info@greenofficevu.nl to remind us. You may also call us on 0031 20 5984320 or drop by our office at HG-KC18.

A Green Team is a team consisting of Green Officers who work for the Green Office VU on a voluntary basis. These Green Teams are coordinated by the portfolio coordinators they support. Want to know want kind of Green Teams we have? Go to https://www.greenofficevu.nl/green-officers/

Every event has an application form which you can find on the page of the event on our website or on social media. Are you not able to find information on the event/application for the event? Please send an email to info@greenofficevu.nl, call us on 0031 20 598 43 20 or drop by our office (HG-KC18).

Yes for sure! We have a Room 4 Green Ideas: in order to make use of our office as efficient as possible we strive to give others outside of the GO.VU the opportunity to user office. You do need to have an event/plan/idea related to sustainability in order to make a reservation. To make a reservation, please go to https://www.greenofficevu.nl/room-4-green-ideas/. Note: your application needs to be received at least one week before the event. Also, in case there will be an Green Office VU event, this will have priority over your event.

Currently, the main team consists of 7 team members. You may read about them on https://www.greenofficevu.nl/about-green-office-vu/team/. Next to the main team, we also have Green Teams with a total of approx. 30 volunteers who support the main team.

This depends on the type of Green Team you’re in, but this is flexible. You can choose yourself how much time and effort you want to put in as long as you let us know this when applying.

You can always become a volunteer at the Green Office, even if you’re not connected to the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Still got questions? Drop by our office, give us a call or send us an email at info@greenofficevu.nl!