It couldn’t be easier: Switch on your computer, click on a link and join the Virtual Higher Education Summit 2020 (#HES2020) from 31 August to 2 September 2020. Connect with like-minded and like-hearted colleagues and share experiences and insights on how we can assure quality and transformative learning for sustainable development in this forward looking event. Interact with thought provoking speakers, join communities of practice in co-creative labs, explore next practices in solution rooms and get to know real transformative local initiatives through online excursions. Check on the 3-day program and register by 31 July 2020!

Associate Professor Živilė Stankevičiūtė of Kaunas University of Technology, School of Economics and Business, Lithuania, benefitted from the voucher offered by Marilyn Mehlmann on the occasion of the COPERNICUS Alliance Online Conference in 2019: Živilė attended a five-day workshop in Croatia in February 2020, followed by three months of online interaction to improve her transformative learning skills. Read her report on the event!

Two research teams at the Vienna University of Economics and Business are teaming up to fight the Climate Crisis. Our latest research shows decisively: the cheapest way of reducing our carbon footprint by far is to put a fair price on CO₂ emissions. Over 19,000 Europeans have already signed the petition. Learn more and add your signature!

In our series "A conversation with..." this time we talk to the organizers of the upcoming Virtual Higher Education Summit 2020 (#HES2020). The COPERNICUS Alliance, saguf, td-net, and the Universities of Bern and Lausanne have joined forces to prepare an international online conference addressing six major challenges for sustainability development. 

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The Environment Centre at Charles University in Prague was pleased to host a 3-day international workshop showcasing a range of innovative teaching methods with the aim to enrich the portfolio of course activities in the area of sustainable food systems.

ASTRALS (Assuring Transformative Learning for Sustainable Development in Higher Education) is a key outcome of our last CA conference – a truly collaborative project proposal that is being developed by CA members and friends. ASTRALS aims to initiate and support a transdisciplinary research agenda that will inform teaching practice as well as the crucial issues of assessment and quality assurance. If you are interested in joining this COST Action proposal, drop us a line!

With the “Campus Planeta Plan” the University of the Basque Country strives for a healthy and sustainable environmental management policy in the framework of the EHUagenda 2030 for sustainable development. This plan aims to be a model for the whole university community to adopt new life and consumption habits in everyday practice at each campus.

The journal Frontiers in Sustainability recently launched a new section on Sustainable Organizations. This section offers opportunities to publish innovative and challenging papers. Interested researchers can get involved as authors or in other roles.

Virtual education has unexpectedly become a global necessity these days. The open source publication "Virtual conferences in higher education: Teasing out their transformative potential for sustainable development" provides insights into this topic.

With the foundation of the Centre for Professors Emeriti and retired higher education teachers, the University of Maribor breaks new ground in this field. Prof. Peter Glavič was elected head of the newly established centre, which will operate at the Rectorate of the University of Maribor. The aim is to close the intergenerational gap and show due honor to Professors Emeriti and retired higher education teachers. 

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Our colleagues from the University of Warsaw critically reflect on the implementation of a newly established interdisciplinary Sustainable Development graduate programme. One of the positive aspects raised is the high rate of foreign students enrolled, which enhances the intercultural approach of the programme and enriches academic discussions. A key challenge noted by the authors is the complexity of coordinating teaching by colleagues from eight university faculties.

The international summer school planned from 17-28 August 2020 at the University of Bern has been postponed to 2021.

Virtual events bear a huge potential to contribute to sustainable development by bridging geographical gaps on a global scale while reducing CO₂ emissions. Building on experience garnered during the COPERNICUS Alliance Online Conference 2019, we developed guidelines on how to prepare, host and evaluate virtual conferences.

With their EHUagenda 2030 for sustainable development the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) has provided a blueprint to bring their work in line with the SDGs and to find sustainable environmental, social and economic solutions to global problems. Over the last three years the university's scientific contribution to the SDGs has increased hugely.

Just founded at the University of Bern, the Wyss Academy for Nature promises to become a leading research and practice centre in the field of nature and people. Scientific teams will work with practitioners and representatives from policy, business, and civil society to develop innovations for the protection and sustainable use of nature across four continents. Made possible by philanthropist Hansjörg Wyss, the Wyss Academy is a joint endeavour of CDE, the Oeschger Centre, and the Institute of Plant Sciences, all of the University of Bern. CDE Director Peter Messerli has been designated to lead the new centre.

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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”.