SDGs Matter at the WU Matters
The WU Vienna Center for Sustainability Transformation and Responsibility (STaR) hosted its first panel discussion at the WU Matters WU Talks public lecture series, titled “The UN Sustainable Development Goals: Why Should They be Your Business?” The event attracted a highly diverse audience of nearly 350 students, faculty and staff, business practitioners, locals and internationals. The issues tackled by the panelists concerned the ways in which SDGs can be embedded into different business models, the differences between the SDG framework and other means of fostering corporate responsibility, SDG communication, measuring SDG impact, and the thorny topic of “SDG-washing”.
On 18 November 2019 the Annual Conference of the European Environmental Bureau took place in Berlin, where key players from the European environmental movement met with political decision-makers. The focus was on the upcoming EU presidency and its strong commitment to the environment expressed in the Green Deal.
The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education of Andorra (AQUA) and the Aragon Agency for Quality Assurance and Strategic Foresight in Higher Education (ACPUA) have developed a Proposal of indicators to embed the Sustainable Development Goals into Institutional Quality Assessment.
The WU Vienna Center for Sustainability Transformation and Responsibility (STaR) organized the 1st Research Conference on Responsible Innovation (22-23 November 2019, Vienna). The two-day conference brought together internationally recognized scholars from various fields and disciplines to reflect on the nature, drivers, and outcomes of Responsible Innovation.
Last November, during the 25th European Week of Advanced Management, the new educational model of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) was presented in front of over 200 participants at the event "IKD jendartea". 
The first multiplier event of the project "Education for Zero Waste and Circular Economy (EduZWaCE)" was held in the Congress Centre Bernardin in Portorož on 24 October 2019. 50 participants from universities, research institutes, enterprises, decision makers and postgraduate students discussed about possibilities and future efforts to improve the upcoming Vocational Education and Training (VET) online program "Education for Zero Waste and Circular Economy" and current developments in this field.
The seminar took place on 9 October 2019 in Bizkaia Aretoa (Bilbao). It analysed how the environmental and social footprint of the University of the Basque Country could be reduced. Materials and videos are available.
3 days, 80 participants, 30 countries, 0 travel carbon: The COPERNICUS Alliance Online Conference 2019 from 9-11 September, entitled “Reaching out for the Stars: Consolidating the HESD Constellation” was a success. The event brought together people and institutions committed to transforming higher education towards sustainable development. Participants from around the world joined the virtual conference rooms and engaged themselves in discussions and interactive sessions. 
The BOKU University for Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, together with the University of Hamburg and the University of Zurich, organised a workshop on "Universities and Sustainable Development Goals", which was supported by a CA Micro Fund. It took place on 11 September 2019 as part of the Pre-Conference of the SBE19 (Sustainable Built Environment D-A-CH Conference 2019) at the Graz University of Technology, Austria.
The University of Bern is currently developing a comprehensive strategy for reducing its CO2 emissions caused by business travel. As a first step, the Executive Board of the University has issued recommendations on how employees can make business travel more sustainable.
The workshop will take place from 24-26 June 2020 in Vienna. It provides a rare and important opportunity for leaders of business school sustainability/responsibility centers to share common challenges and identify solutions. Interested persons can join the bottom-up approach to building the event’s program. The call for workshop session submissions is now officially open.
Based on a survey, the University of Gävle, in cooperation with the Autonomous University of Madrid, investigated sustainability being taught, sustainability competences developed, and pedagogical approaches used at European Higher Education Institutions. 
The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) announced the paper “Mainstreaming Education for Sustainable Development at a Swiss University: Navigating the Traps of Institutionalization” by author Lilian Trechsel (researcher at the Centre of Development and Environment, University of Bern) as a finalist for the 2019 AASHE Sustainability Awards in the Campus Sustainability Research category for outstanding research in sustainability. 
The Educating Future Change Agents (EFCA) project, a joint research initiative of Leuphana University in Lüneburg, Germany and Arizona State University, USA has been conducting research since 2016 which seeks to collect empirical evidence on how key competencies in sustainability can be effectively developed. A team of researchers has carried out an integrated and innovative multi-case study design at both universities and initial results are beginning to be published.
In the week of 6 May a Sustainability Week was organised at KU Leuven (Belgium). This was an initiative of the Green Office for KU Leuven, in collaboration with the student unions of all faculties, the student council, the Sustainability Office of the vice-rector for Sustainability, and Pangaea (a welcoming place for international students). The goal was to create awareness about sustainability in all its dimensions, by bringing less known dimensions – such as economic and social aspects – into the spotlight.
