Challenge Sustainability

Our Understanding of Sustainability

 

It is the foundation of sustainable development to live and work in a way that we do not exceed the limits of our planet’s ecological capacities. In addition, our social and economic system must be designed in a just and resilient way.

Universities Bear Special Responsibility.

They provide contributions for the advancement of these concepts, are trailblazers, and give impetus to ideas and strategies for sustainable developments in society.

The University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Faces this Responsibility.

This crystallizes on three central action levels:

  • Sustainability and its social relevance are essential issues for BOKU research
  • Sustainability is a vital issue in university teaching
  • Sustainability is put into practice as an institutional principle at the BOKU

These pages provide information on those measures and initiatives in the field of sustainability that have already been realized at our university.

BOKU Sustainability Strategy

As one of the first universities in Austria, the BOKU -as University of Life- has developed a strategy for sustainability in 2014-2018. Information on the BOKU sustainability strategy 2019-2024 can be found here.

Event calendar Sustainability in the discourse

Here we inform you about different event formats - both internal and external at the BOKU - that deal discursively and critically with various dimensions of sustainability.

 

Project UniNEtZ

The Alliance of Sustainable Universities in Austria has taken the initiative and invited all universities in a joint, coordinated effort to support the implementation of the SDGs in Austria. The aim is, among other things, to prepare an options report for the Austrian federal government.

BOKU Sustainability Day

Sustainability can and should bring joy, encourage and create something new! The BOKU tries to convey this message to its visitors with the BOKU Sustainability Day. Every year in the summer semester, this takes place on different topics.

Environmental management

As a responsible university, it is important to the BOKU to actively contribute to protecting the environment in its own operations and thus to develop into a sustainable organization.

BOKU Sustainability Report

Competence Center for Climate Neutrality

The BOKU-based center for compensation of greenhouse gas emissions is available to individuals, companies, public and private institutions, associations and other legal entities outside the BOKU and provides them with calculations and compensation for flight-related CO2 emissions.

 

Sustainability in Research

The BOKU was the first Austrian university to sign the “Sustainability in Higher Education” initiative launched in the run-up to the UN Rio+20 conference - and thus voluntarily committed itself to promoting sustainability in both teaching and research activities.

Sustainability in teaching

Within the range of courses at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, great attention is paid to imparting the hard and soft skills that students need in order to later be able to work in practice in the development of ecologically compatible, economically efficient and socially just solutions.

Center for Global Change and Sustainability

The Center for Global Change and Sustainability promotes sustainability at the BOKU and supports cooperation and research in the field of Global Change and sustainability.

Alliance of Sustainable Universities in Austria

The Alliance of Sustainable Universities in Austria is a national association of currently nine Austrian universities that advocate sustainability.

BOKU Sustainability Award

With the BOKU Sustainability Award, BOKU's good practice initiatives from various areas are honored annually and brought to the curtain.

Student Initiatives

The BOKU would like to enable its students to develop sustainable solutions and to gain practical experience in the field of sustainability during their training.