Sustainability

Sustainability Initiative

The International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU) established a campus sustainability initiative in 2009 with the aim of promoting collaboration between member institutions and developing best practices strategies in environmental management.

The initiative was formally launched at the Climate Congress at the University of Copenhagen in March 2009.

The Presidents of the IARU have stated their ongoing commitment to sustainability. Over time the scope of the initiative grew beyond campus sustainability. Each member of the alliance has established programs to progressively improve their environmental performances across university activities as well as building an ecologically literate community.

The relevant staff from each university communicate on matters of common interest to identify opportunities to work together and exchange information.

How to Make a Green Campus

IARU begun collaborating on issues of sustainability in 2006, 10 years later, each university has made real headway and developed a robust dialogue.

In 2009 the campus sustainability initiative was established with the aim of promoting collaboration between member institutions and developing best practices strategies in environmental management. All IARU universities are faced with a variety of challenges to which they each answer with a variety of solutions and initiatives. The continuous and fruitful exchange between IARU partners has contributed to making these solutions even more valuable.

To celebrate 10 years of collaboration in IARU, this video provides an overview of the range of practices put in place at IARU universities to enhance IARU campuses and encourage engagement in sustainability.

To learn more on each university’s efforts for sustainability on campus, please watch the individual videos below.

Sustainability at UC Berkeley

UC Berkeley intends to be a leader on environmental issues and to promote action and awareness through educational and research activities.

"Globally, we face significant environmental, economic, and social challenges, from inequality to climate change, from food security to water shortages. Today, more than ever, we need to act and to help create a world that supports generations to come. Berkeley works to find solutions to these pressing issues and to make the world a better place."

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Cambridge - The Living Laboratory

The ‘Living Lab’ provides opportunities for Cambridge students to carry out research and projects across the University to improve its sustainability.

The options are almost limitless. Topics and themes might focus on transport, biodiversity, energy, waste, food, behaviour change, wellbeing, the built environment, consumption patterns, culture...the list goes on. As long as what you are doing aims to help improve the University's environmental sustainability, we would love to hear from you.

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UCPH - Green Campus

The University of Copenhagen has set out ambitious new targets for sustainability designed to make UCPH one of the world’s most sustainable universities.

With “Green Campus 2020: A Strategy for Resource Efficiency and Sustainability” the University has taken a big step towards meeting new environmental goals, including specific targets for energy and CO2 reductions.

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Oxford Green Impact Awards

Green Impact is an Oxford University environmental accreditation scheme that brings together staff and students across the University to play an active role in improving the sustainable practices of their office, building or department.

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PKU - The Inverse Growth of Weiming Lake

The water in Weiming Lake comes mainly from the Wanquan River. The increase of population and development caused pollution of the river. In 2000, Peking University started it's water saving movement, and worked with the government to launch sewage treatment projects.

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ETH Zurich - There is no Planet B

"Climate change interacts with the big sustainability topics such as natural resources, food, energy, water, poverty, urbanization... And it raises long and short term challenges, affecting the next generations." This short video on sustainability research at ETH Zurich, features Reto Knutti, Professor for Climate Science, as well as Associate Vice President for Sustainability at ETH Zurich. Research, education, and campus sustainability efforts are touched upon as the three-pronged approach that ETH Zurich uses to confront climate change and issues related to it.

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Sustainability Solutions at Yale

Members of Yale's Sustainability strategic planning process discuss the many ways in which Yale is both addressing sustainability and climate change as an institution, and integrating sustainability study and research into the academic mission of the university.

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UTokyo - In Pursuit of Sustainability

The University of Tokyo initiated the Todai Sustainable Campus Project (TSCP) in 2008 to reduce carbon emissions. In this video the members of the TSCP Student Committee will guide you through the measures in place and the new zero energy building "21 KOMCEE".

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Sustainability at the National University of Singapore

A summary of how sustainability is incorporated into the teaching, research and campus operations of the National University of Singapore. It includes a special mention of University Town, where sustainability-centric masterplanning and operations principles are demonstrated in a tangible and impactful way.

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Sustainability at the Australian National University

The Australian National University campus has more than 10,000 trees and over 100 native animals, its working environment is defined by nature. ANU established an environmental policy over fifteen years ago. Since then the university has implemented three environmental management plans obtaining major results in significantly reducing wastes, water use and fuel consumption.

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Global Priorities, Educated Solutions

: the role of academia in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals

Co-authored by members of the IARU institutions, Global Priorities, Educated Solutions: the role of academia in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals, is an online publication that explores the role of academia in advancing the SDGs. The purpose of this project is to identify the specific pathways for universities to engage in fostering dialogue, innovating, measuring, reporting, and developing solutions for the 17 goals. The publication is framed around four complementary themes:

Scholarship for solutions: innovation and experiential teaching and research in the context of the SDGs.
Walking the talk: how campuses can lead by example in terms of operational excellence and using the campus as a test bed for innovation.
Next generation innovation: the role of students in advancing world-changing ideas.
Service for society: universities as thought-leaders and collaborative partners in addressing global challenges.

Each chapter includes an introduction to explain the track, a review of opportunities, a section on hurdles and solutions, and a set of case studies, and some additional quick tips. The site also includes a repository of resources for further reading and links for where to find more information.

This publication will be maintained online to support ongoing updates and spontaneous translation to other languages.

Global University Climate Forum 2015

“Think global, act local”

Global University Climate Forum 2015 - Next Generations' Solutions to Today's Global Challenges
In front of the Panthéon...and of the icebergs (Photo credit: Sorbonne Univeristés)
Professor LeTreut from Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Photo credit: Sorbonne Univerisités)
ETH and Cambridge #OneWorldChallenge project.
SMART Canteens at the University of Copenhagen
GUCF2015 Raising the #ClimateSign

The 2015 Global University Climate Forum took place during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP21) in Paris on 5 December 2015, hosted by Sorbonne Universités.

Sponsored by the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU) with additional support from the International Sustainable Campus Network (ISCN), the Global University Climate Forum is a network of student teams from universities around the world who collaborate on initiatives that promote sustainability at their home institutions.

The Forum embodies the saying “Think global, act local” by focusing on tangible, campus-based solutions that ultimately impact the dissemination of student awareness and global environmental consciousness.

100 students from over 30 universities from across the world gathered in Paris, the workshop was a unique opportunity to share and learn about brilliant projects for sustainability on campus.

Students' project ideas span disciplines and methods: from app-based systems over reduced food waste in campus canteens to behavior-changing campaigns and retrofitting plans. Continuing with innovative financial solutions for greening students' and universities' investments before moving on to experiencing a sustainable lifestyle during 3 weeks.

The projects were reviewed by peers and commentators including: Professor Daniel Kammen from University of California Berkeley, Maria Ivanova from the Center for Governance and Sustainability at UMass Boston and Zena Harris from the International Sustainable Campus Network.

Watch the videos (interviews of student from IARU universities 1, 2, 3, 4) made by Association Sorbonne Université.

After the workshop, work will continue on campus while the network will move online and keep in touch for the sake of addressing climate change.

Campus Sustainability

The initiative was formally launched at the Climate Congress at the University of Copenhagen in March 2009.

The Presidents of the IARU have stated their ongoing commitment to sustainability. Each member of the alliance has established programs to progressively improve their environmental performances across university activities as well as building an ecologically literate community.

The relevant staff from each university communicate on matters of common interest to identify opportunities to work together and exchange information. Annual reports detailing the progress of this initiative are presented to the annual IARU Presidents' Meeting.