Sustainability Report
Background & developments to date
In 2021, the University of Innsbruck developed a sustainability strategy as part of a large-scale future-oriented process and presented it at the internal university event “Think with us” in November 2021. Alongside digitalization, internationalization, diversity, and the “student life cycle,” sustainability is one of the strategic cross-cutting themes at the University of Innsbruck. The sustainability strategy3 describes the framework for further implementation. Among other things, it is essential that broad participation and involvement of students and staff is planned in order to anchor sustainability.
Since the current rectorate period, which began in March 2023, the topic of sustainability has also been directly addressed at the highest management level with a vice-rectorate for digitalization and sustainability. In February 2024, the Rectorate also decided to launch a process to concretize and implement the sustainability strategy, which is currently being carried out. In accordance with this decision, a corresponding process is currently being implemented.
One of the first results of this process is the expansion and, in some cases, redefinition of the areas of action (see Figure 1). For example, the area of action “Inter-university cooperation” has been expanded to emphasize the importance of cooperation between universities in the context of sustainable development.
The area of teaching is now broadly defined under the term “education” in order to visibly address aspects of the continuing education and training program for employees and external parties, among other things. In addition, the new term “governance and organizational culture” places greater emphasis on the culture of cooperation at the university—this is particularly important in the context of social sustainability. As shown in Figure 1, the focus should be on Background & developments to date developing concrete goals and measures. Key aspects with regard to establishing a culture of sustainability are making existing practices visible and raising awareness. Against this backdrop, the University of Innsbruck has been holding a Sustainability Week since 2023. In 2024, the theme of the week was "Together.Future". In close cooperation with partners, an exciting week full of activities, workshops, and discussion panels was organized, with a total of over 30 different events on offer. In 2024, the university’s sustainability strategy and its further concretization and implementation were also the focus of its own exchange formats and events. Participatory formats were offered to gather the thoughts, ideas, and wishes of university members so that these could be taken into account in the next steps.
The kick-off event also saw the opening of the poster exhibition “Sustainability at the University of Innsbruck – Good Practices,” which highlighted the commitment and work of university members in the field of sustainability. All staff and students were invited to present their projects, initiatives, and activities in the form of a poster. The poster exhibition is therefore not intended to be comprehensive, but rather represents only a portion of the sustainability-related projects at the University of Innsbruck. The collected contributions to the poster exhibition can be viewed in this overview.
Throughout Sustainability Week, the cafeteria placed special emphasis on offering exclusively vegetarian and vegan dishes. The same applied to the catering provided at the workshops and events held during the week.
Both Sustainability Weeks (2023 and 2024) were organized by the student-run Green Office team in close cooperation with the Vice-Rectorate for Digitalization and Sustainability. This underscores the importance of student participation in sustainability at the University of Innsbruck. Back in 2018, committed students from various departments founded the “INUI – Initiative for a Sustainable University of Innsbruck”5. The students were convinced that the university was still doing far too little in terms of sustainability. By organizing a variety of events, such as a swap and campus market and discussion panels, INUI has contributed to raising awareness of sustainability issues at the University of Innsbruck and, through its actions, created spaces for exchange and awareness-raising.
Further information and insights into the work of INUI
INUI – Initiative Nachhaltige Universität Innsbruck (2019): Studierende für eine sozial-ökologische Transformation: INUI – Initiative Nachhaltige Universität Innsbruck stellt sich vor. In: Innsbrucker Geographische Gesellschaft: Innsbrucker Jahresbericht 2018 - 2019. ISBN 978-3-901182-75-4. 249 - 255. https://geographie.uibk.ac.at/unicms/igg/pub/pdf/ijb_2018_2019.pdf.
Allerberger, F.; Emrich, L.; Heuser, J.; Mack, P.; Weimar, J. & Weiß, M. (2021)*: Zur gesellschaftlichen
Verantwortung der Wissenschaft. Die Sicht der studentischen ››Initiative Nachhaltige Universität Innsbruck‹‹. In: Dickel, M & Böhmer, H.J. (Hrsg.): Die Verantwortung der Geographie. Orientierung für eine reflexive Forschung. transcript Verlag, Bielefeld. 149-172. DOI: 10.14361/9783839456651-008. *alphabetische Reihenfolge – alle Autor:innen haben gleichermaßen am Bericht mitgewirkt
In a course taught in collaboration with INUI, a concept for establishing a student-organized Green Office was developed in order to anchor student engagement even more firmly within the institution. This ultimately led to the establishment of a Green Office on the Innrain6 campus in 2019, which employs four student staff members.
Another Green Office location was established in 2023 on the Technik campus, which employed four to five student staff members during the reporting period. In both cases, the University of Innsbruck is responsible for financing and funding. The Green Offices are run by students and act as a central interface between the university management and the student body. They also serve as a central point of contact for internal and external cooperation partners.
The Green Office inspires, empowers, and acts to actively promote sustainable development at the university. They offer an attractive and diverse range of events and actively incorporate student perspectives into systemic decisions and projects at the university.
In addition to these core tasks, the Green Office at the Innrain Campus focuses on organizing the annual Sustainability Week at the University of Innsbruck, which has been held since 2023. The Green Office at the Technik Campus, on the other hand, concentrates more on infrastructure projects.
In 2024, the two Green Offices have jointly and individually implemented numerous projects with the aim of making the University of Innsbruck more sustainable. The most important activities include:
- Organization of Sustainability Week 2024
- Monthly clothing swaps and bicycle repair workshops (Instagram post)
- Workshops on bicycle and clothing repair as well as repair cafés for electrical appliances (Instagram post)
- Maintenance of the INGE university garden
- Maintenance of the SOFA room (a place for self-organized, political, and university exchange, consumption-free encounters, and education)
- Participation in the core team for the sustainability strategy of the University of Innsbruck
- Initiation and coordination of campus cinema events
- Establishment and maintenance of the “Fairteiler” (fair distributor) on the Technik campus
- Development of a concept for the reduction and reuse of obsolete electrical appliances
- Organization of the first completely student-led course at the University of Innsbruck
The university has recognized the potential of such student-organized Green Offices and will continue to strengthen and expand them in the future. Details on this are explained in the section on the field of action Governance & Organizational Culture.
Introduction Overview Areas of action at the University of Innsbruck