Sustainability strategies in Higher Education | Reflections and practices at UNICA member universities
18 December 2024
The aim of this report is to provide an introduction into how UNICA member universities are developing and implementing sustainability strategies.
UNICA member universities contributed to this report by providing insights through a Survey on Sustainability Strategies coordinated by the UNICA Green & SDGs Working Group in the first semester 2024, which provided a snapshot of the current status of sustainability strategies within the network. The report also integrates the takeaways of the online UNICA Green & SDGs Roundtable on Sustainability Strategies, organized in March 2024.
The results of the survey provide a window into the wider state of strategic thinking and practice on sustainability at universities across Europe, and the report offers insights into the experiences of institutions that have conceptualised, developed, and implemented such vision in this key area for the future.
Acknowledgments
This report would not have been possible without the valuable input and feedback of the members of UNICA Green & SDGS and of UNICA member universities which contributed to the survey and to the roundtable on sustainability strategies:
University of Vienna, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Université libre de Bruxelles, University of Cyprus, Charles University, Sorbonne Nouvelle, Freie Universität Berlin, University of Iceland, University College Dublin, University of Latvia, University of Luxembourg, University of Bucharest, “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Comenius University, University of Ljubljana, Complutense University of Madrid, University of Gothenburg, University of Lausanne, University of Bern, Ankara University, University of Edinburgh, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Middle East Technical University.
We would also like to express our gratitude to Matthew Lawson, Coordinator of UNICA Green & SDGs and Senior SRS Learning, Teaching and Reporting Manager at the Department for Social Responsibility and Sustainability of the University of Edinburgh, for his dedicated leadership of the Working Group and his guidance throughout the process.
Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.