Facts and Role Models

UZH has ambitious sustainability goals: the university is aiming to be climate-neutral by the year 2030. For the past decade, UZH has been supported on its journey towards a sustainable future by the sustainability team and the sustainability delegate. They initiate and coordinate projects, advising and connecting university members on sustainability topics. Just in time for its 10th anniversary, the sustainability team has now been renamed Sustainability Hub and will become an independent office reporting directly to Deputy President Gabriele Siegert.

“This will make us even more visible,” says Linde Warland, who has been heading the office since August. “We intend for the Sustainability Hub to become the central hub for sustainability at UZH.” In addition, Jan Seibert was newly appointed as sustainability delegate at the beginning of September. The water researcher from the Department of Geography succeeds computer scientist Lorenz Hilty, who retired this summer. In his role as delegate, Seibert also chairs the Sustainability Commission, which includes representatives from all faculties and representative bodies as well as three representatives from Central Services.

“Over the past 10 years, Lorenz Hilty and the sustainability team have managed to put sustainability on the agenda at UZH,” says Seibert. “It has been – and continues to be – crucial for us to have a dialogue about sustainability based on facts, relying on well-founded figures,” adds Warland.

Indeed, much has been achieved in the past decade. Sustainability experts played a key role in developing the Sustainability Policy and the implementation strategy, which were adopted in 2019 and 2020, respectively, and are already bearing fruit. With the efforts made thus far, CO2 emissions have been significantly reduced in important areas such as air travel and catering. Since 2018, UZH’s sustainability report, which is currently published every two years, has been providing information about developments of this kind.

The university has also designed and held teaching events, such as the Sustainability Now lecture series organized jointly with UZH’s Right Livelihood Center, and the Sustainable Development and Transformation study week offered by the School for Transdisciplinary Studies. In 2021, the Zurich Knowledge Center for Sustainable Development was also established, which includes UZH as well as the three other cantonal universities in Zurich. The goal of the center, which was led by Lorenz Hilty until his retirement, is to share knowledge on sustainability topics and launch joint projects.

Despite these encouraging developments, Warland and Seibert agree that there is still much to do if UZH wants to achieve the goals set out in its Sustainability Policy. “Further efforts are needed when it comes to strengthening sustainability in research, teaching and university operations,” says Warland. “That’s why it’s important for as many UZH members as possible to do their part.” Seibert sees things similarly. At a successful university like UZH, the principle of academic freedom in research and teaching is important, he says, which makes it much more difficult to implement top-down sustainability measures than in a corporate setting. That is why it is important for UZH members to voluntarily adopt more sustainable behaviors.

Of course, this is something that requires a change in mindset. Seibert seems to have achieved this in his department when it comes to air travel. “When I came to UZH 15 years ago, researchers still considered it cool to fly to as many international conferences as possible,” he says. “Now things are totally different – no one would brag about that anymore today.” For destinations that are no more than 1,500 kilometers from Zurich, the hydrologist and his team now only travel by train. According to Seibert, it’s important to find a good balance. It’s not about never flying anymore, he says, but about always asking yourself whether a taking a flight makes sense. “Sometimes you have to be willing to make bigger compromises,” says Seibert. He encourages people to look for alternative solutions, which are sometimes easier to find than they might think. “For example, avoiding the use of overseas examiners for doctoral examinations,” says Seibert. “There are enough qualified people in Europe.”

When it comes to creating a culture of sustainable behavior, line managers serve as important role models. Warland and Seibert agree that line managers’ behavior has an impact on their teams. This role model function is also addressed in leadership training and in UZH’s leadership principles. Leaders should manage their teams and offices with resource efficiency in mind and should reflect on how their units can help bring about more sustainability.

“The possibilities for this vary greatly from office to office,” says Warland. “Sustainable choices can affect laboratory work just as much as teaching.” Teaching is where it is particularly important to address sustainability. “We should provide students in all fields with sustainability skills that they can later apply responsibly in their professional lives,” says Warland. “UZH can make an important contribution here.”

In the coming years, the topic of sustainability at UZH is set to gain even more importance. There are plans for a strategic project in which various task forces will do a deep dive into how CO2 emissions can be further reduced in different areas and how the university can achieve its goal of climate neutrality. If UZH is to succeed, all members of the university community will need to do their part. “My impression is that almost everyone is in favor of sustainability – just not always necessarily in their own team or office, since when it comes to implementation, conflicting aims may arise,” says Seibert. “But there are positive changes and good practice examples at UZH that we all ought to follow.”