Growing importance of sustainability within Swiss higher education sector

In the 2021 sustainability rankings report published by WWF Switzerland and econcept, your university was ranked as the second best Swiss higher education institution for sustainability. What does the University of Lausanne do to encourage sustainability? 

Sustainability has been at the heart of everything we have done at the University of Lausanne (UNIL) for the past ten years. It is ingrained in our institutional mindset and we have anchored it at the highest possible level. To illustrate my point, the University of Lausanne established a Competence Centre in Sustainability in 2011 and since 2019, this dedicated research facility has been instrumental in encouraging greater coverage of sustainability issues in both teaching and research. UNIL's governance is thus constantly evolving to embrace environmental and social change within the institution. We further consolidated this integrative thinking approach last year by setting up a committee comprised of department heads and members of all seven deaneries. This committee has been tasked with devising a set of measures to facilitate the environmental and social transition. A set of proposals will then be submitted to the UNIL Rectorate.

The Competence Centre in Sustainability aims to encourage interdisciplinarity in this area. What benefits does this bring to the University of Lausanne?

This interdisciplinary work enables UNIL to more readily identify where change is needed to improve environmental sustainability within our institution. Interdisciplinary events and projects are organised to facilitate interaction between researchers and civil society, thus facilitating the transfer of knowledge. UNIL's Competence Centre in Sustainability is also committed to teaching and research: it is constantly working on the existing range of sustainability courses and takes student expectations into account in its decision-making process.

Finally, several projects have been launched such as Volteface, a research platform on environmental change, and Catalyse, a role-playing game designed to improve communication between the researchers and policymakers. Where do you see room for improvement in the area of sustainability?

Generally speaking, the UNIL Rectorate intends to continue focussing on environmental change as a key task of our institution. The 'Assemblée de la transition' launched by the UNIL Rectorate in 2022 is intended to support these efforts. Sixty members selected at random from the UNIL community will work together to devise measures for a transition plan. The various proposals will then be submitted to the UNIL Rectorate in July 2023, which will then decide on implementation.

Finally, we intend to provide greater coverage of sustainability in the content of our study programmes. Students will be encouraged to do their part in tackling the various issues associated with environmental change.

In the 2021 sustainability rankings report published by WWF Switzerland and econcept, your university was ranked as the best Swiss higher education institution for sustainability. A large number of initiatives to promote sustainability seems to be the main reason. Why are such projects so important?

Both bottom-up initiatives and top-down direction are needed in order to make a difference. Many good ideas and suggestions come from our students or from the various departments. At the same time, sustainability has been a strategic priority at management level for many years. Among the various measures, ETH Zurich created the position of Associate Vice President for Sustainability. It also set up several teams of experts to help raise awareness of the importance of sustainability and develop solutions. Our strong rating in this report is also due to the fact that we regularly gather operational data. This allows ETH Zurich to keep track of its own development and constantly review the effectiveness of measures taken.

ETH Zurich wants to achieve climate neutrality by 2030. What is being done to achieve this net-zero target?  

In a nutshell, the aim is to avoid, reduce and compensate for CO₂ emissions - in that order of priority. We have already been able to massively reduce emissions from heating and cooling through targeted modernisation projects, e.g. the Anergie network on the Hönggerberg campus. We use this campus as a living laboratory to test new technologies. Other projects deal with CO₂ reduction targets and behavioural changes (e.g. air travel practices of professors and researchers or choice of menus at our campus restaurants. We are also assessing CO2 emissions in the value chain that ETH Zurich causes when it purchases services from external providers. This 'Scope 3' area is probably the greatest challenge in reducing our carbon footprint. Finally, our spin-offs make an important contribution, providing innovations that help Switzerland and the world to decarbonise. We need more such initiatives so that we can aim for a fossil-free future as quickly and as sustainably as possible.

Where do you see room for improvement in the area of sustainability? 

We are constantly learning. We have a lot of experience with voluntary measures, but overall, the desired impact has not yet been achieved. We have reached a point where we need more commitment. With the publication of the net-zero white paper, we have set ourselves the target of becoming climate-neutral by 2030. This is a huge task, but also an opportunity. Climate neutrality is a joint responsibility that requires concerted and determined action in all core areas of ETH Zurich. We see ourselves as not just a part of society. We also want to be part of the solution to make these aspirations a reality.