From 1880s two new building materials, steel and concrete, have been introduced, replacing traditional and locally produced materials, such as clay, wood, stone, straw, cork, etc. Steel and concrete are advanced materials, but they also embodied with a great amount of energy and greenhouse gas emissions in their production process. In fact, steel and concrete represent 3% and over 5% of human greenhouse emissions on Earth, respectively. 8% of the entire human gas emissions come from these two materials only. The statistics show that almost 50% of CO2 emissions are related to the building industry sector. Moreover, the statistics show that, with the rapid increase of the Earth’s population, over 3 billion people will need a new home in the next 50 years.

In order to solve the aforementioned problems, a new project, Back2Future, is proposed, which will introduce a strategy for implementing sustainable traditional local sourced materials containing recycled and industrial waste products into the building industry sector through education of undergraduate students. The project will fully comply with EU Commissions’ innovative laws for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and net zero carbon (CO₂) targets for 2030 and 2050.

The countries participating in the project, Portugal, Denmark, Lithuania, Poland and Greece, will provide a good balance and a cross-section of the EU regarding building traditions and climate.

Project Back2Future aims at development and delivery of an innovative trans-disciplinary e-learning course “Building with Sustainable Local Traditional Materials” by using studentcentered project based learning, learning by doing and blended learning approaches.

Objectives:

1) to introduce innovative educational methodology, based on student-centered project based learning, learning by doing and blended learning approaches;

2) to develop and deliver a new trans-disciplinary e-learning course on building with sustainable local traditional materials;

3) to educate and to provide practical skills/experience and knowledge to all participants (students, teachers, entrepreneurs) in sustainable locally produced building materials and buildability methods;

4) to ensure an open awareness of the project results and to introduce adapted traditional, national and local sustainable materials back into the construction sector in the EU, upgrading them for today's and future demands.

The main target groups are higher education institutions, in particular teachers and BSc/BA students, whose specialization is directly related to architecture, design, civil engineering, construction technology or similar subjects. Moreover, it is envisaged that the project will be relevant for business companies and will foster further development of sustainable construction with local building materials.

In frames of the project three intellectual outputs will be developed: 1) Educational Methodology; 2) E-Learning Course “Building with Sustainable Local Traditional Materials” (9 ECTS); 3) E-Learning Platform.

At least 20 teachers/trainers will participate in intensive training course in Denmark, where competences on innovative project based learning, learning by doing and blended learning approaches will be developed. New trans-disciplinary e-learning course and e-learning platform will be jointly developed by partners from five countries in consultation with business enterprises. The new course will be tested in three intensive learning/teaching courses that will take place in Portugal, Lithuania and Poland. International building and construction project phases, which are used in most EU countries, will be adapted in the project as a main template, namely Brief phase, Outline Proposal, Scheme Design, Detail 1 and Detail 2 phases. In total 90 BSc/BA students will be educated. Students will gain innovative trans-disciplinary knowledge in sustainable construction with local materials; using innovative learning approaches, they will develop their research, teamwork, communication and cooperation, creative thinking, problem-solving skills required in modern daily work environment.

Stakeholders whose activities are related to construction, i.e. associations and private enterprises, will be involved in the development of the new course; therefore, they will have an opportunity to share their expertise and include the topics that will help to acquire competences, required in labor market. In this way collaboration between academic and business sector will be strengthened.

At least 20 international and 50 local participants from HEIs, educational authorities and business companies will attend the international conference in Greece, where innovative intellectual outputs will be presented. It will result in increased public awareness about the outputs of the project.

The project's objectives, activities and actions are aligned with the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: