COPERNICUS Alliance

The University of Graz aims to foster environmental measures at all levels. "Green Buddies" are departmental volunteers who promote activities related to energy, waste, procurement, resources and mobility in their departments and exchange with the environment and sustainability team of the university.

From 14-15 December 2022, the Ubuntu Committee of Peers for the Regional Centres of Expertise (RCEs) met in Tokyo. The CA was represented by CA Advisory Board member Jana Dlouhá. The RCE network is an important partner of the CA and some CA members also coordinate an RCE.

The University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) is a partner in the new Erasmus+ project ATTUNE (Activate the University for Climate Change). The project addresses climate change on the university campus and promotes and encourages action by all members of the university community. It includes an innovative learning programme that helps Higher Education Institutions become more sustainable.

A recent paper by the Climate Change Centre Austria (CCCA), a climate research-related alliance of Austrian Universities and other research institutions, provides a scientific basis for climate policies. It underpins the urgency of immediate systematic climate action measures and defines carbon budgets for Austria.

Higher education for sustainability urgently needs to convey soft skills. The project TRACCskills puts a focus on "people skills" and explores transformative practice-based teaching tools. During an online workshop on "Soft skills for hard decisons" on 25 January 2023, an international audience gained insights into the project and was able to test transformative methods live.

MERGED is a new joint programme developed and implemented by universities in Denmark, Italy, and Poland. All are partners in the 4EU+ Alliance. Students of the programme benefit from interdisciplinary knowledge, direct sector exposure, practical field experiences, specialized abilities to target sustainability problems, and thus high employability. MERGED is unique in educating graduates who can deal with interdisciplinary challenges at the nexus of renewable environmental resources and sustainable development. Application deadlines for interested students: Outside EU/EEA/Switzerland applicants: 15 January; EU/EEA/Switzerland applicants: 1 March.

► Read more

From 6-8 December 2022, the partners of the TRACCskills project facilitated a pilot course on "Transformative Decision Making: Teaching Cross Cutting Skills for the SDGs in Higher Education". 20 educators and trainers gathered at Leuphana University of Lüneburg to test various tools and facilitation methods by applying them to their individual decision-making cases – a truly transformative experience for both facilitators and participants!

Green Offices stand for institutionalizing sustainability in higher education by empowering students and staff as changemakers. From 21-22 October 2022, students and staff from Belgian Green Offices – including several CA members – gathered for a meet-up. The two-day meeting served for knowledge exchange between well-established Green Offices and newer ones as well as for joint workshops with partner organizations.

The COPERNICUS Alliance was invited by three other networks to represent our European network on higher education for sustainable development at their events: The international week of the Top Management Programme for senior higher education leaders organized by Advance HE, the Annual Meeting of PRME’s chapter France & Benelux, and the Summit for Future Generations of the Foundation for Future Generations. We provide a brief overview of the key messages given and taken during these three events.

From 10-11 November 2022, the SDG-iLevel project partners met in Rijeka, Croatia. Current activities involve interviews with decision makers at universities and a large survey among European academics. SDG-iLevel Maps will connect specific tasks performed by employees in major university staff groups and academic domains with specific individual contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals at macro, meso and micro (individual) level. 

For university lecturers in Austria, there is currently a lack of both adequate further training offers on sustainable development and suitable incentives to participate in them. How can sustainable development in its various forms be integrated into schools, if student teachers at universities have so far received too little insight into the topic? Against this background, the "Alliance of Sustainable Universities in Austria" developed the 2-semester further education program "ESD-Certificate" for university teachers.

From 6-8 September 2022 Hasselt University opened its doors to the conference highlight of the year: Well over a hundred participants gathered at the Higher Education Summit 2022 in Hasselt, Belgium. Under the theme "Daring to transform learning for a future-proof economy" the summit brought together changemakers in the field of transformative learning for sustainable development within higher education. The program offered plenary sessions, interactive workshops, inspiring talks, onsite excursions, lots of networking opportunities and thought-provoking keynotes by Guia Bianchi, Sam de Muijnck, Vivek Gilani, Liesbeth Huybrechts, Kate Raworth, Gustavo Rodriguez, Olivia Rutazibwa, Stephen Sterling, Lilian Trechsel and Renate Wesselink. Check out recordings, photos and further material of the conference! 

► Read more

"Wake Up – The Lao Coffee Game" is a Swiss–Lao co-production co-created by the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) at the University of Bern. Aimed at 17–23-year-old students, the game can be played in person or online. It combines interactive, face-to-face role play with digital gaming trajectories. Using the example of coffee, its purpose is to offer an in-depth learning experience of the system dynamics of global agricultural commodity value chains and the implications for sustainable development. 

► Read more

Surging from a workshop during the Higher Education Summit 2022 three learner- and student-driven initiatives are taking the ambition to explore the potential impact on transforming education. The Green Office Movement (member of Students Organising for Sustainability SOS-International), oikos International and the Young Person’s Guide to the Future aim to create a joint program that combines Education for Sustainable Development with leadership skills and the Inner Development Goals. Are you future-ready and/or do you want to learn with us together?

The project TRACCskills, in which the CA is involved as a partner, aims towards developing a practice-oriented compendium for high-quality and future-fit adult education that focuses on "people skills". As the project is making progress, we want to shed a light on a concept that amongst others is being used: the Inner Development Goals (IDGs). The current IDGs framework represents five dimensions and 23 skills and qualities which are especially crucial to reach the SDGs. Find out more about TRACCskills and the IDGs!

The University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) responds to its commitment to sustainability by calculating the food waste generated on its three campuses. Recent investigations in the project "Food waste at the UPV/EHU: Measuring to reduce" show the potential for food waste reduction in all canteens and cafeterias.

To accelerate the implementation of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in a decade of action to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals and achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, UNESCO is launching the new global network of education stakeholders: ESD-Net 2030. The Network aims to create synergy among members and foster cross-sectoral collaboration to support the implementation of ESD nationally, regionally, and globally.  

Networks fuel innovation and support careers, and they act as drivers of change – this was one of the key messages during the workshop "The future of university networks – What is their added value for each member university and for the network?" at BOKU Vienna. The workshop on 24 May 2022 was organized on the occasion of BOKU’s 150th anniversary, which was celebrated with a memorable event entitled "Featuring Future Conference". Former CA President Anne Zimmermann represented the CA at the workshop next to eight other networks. The aim was to discuss what were the three most important benefits that members expected from each university network, and were these expectations met?