Sustainability Week Switzerland 2020

Sustainability Week Switzerland 2020

Sustainable Development Goals

The concept of a sustainability week at higher education institutions (HEIs) is already well established. The origin of this concept lies in Zurich, Switzerland. Student of the university of Zurich and ETH Zurich organised the first sustainability week in 2013. The week grew during the following years and included other HEIs in Switzerland.

The Swiss Sustainability Week 2020 started off with the opening event in Bern on the 27th of February – with approximately 200 attendees! The Opening Event was organized by the Sustainability Week Bern, BENE (association for sustainable development at the university of Bern) and the Sustainability Week Switzerland, who invited the interested public and all Local Sustainability Weeks to reflect on climate justice. Speakers from different disciplines and backgrounds, among them representatives of Caritas and Biovision, talked about their view on climate justice and motivated the visitors to act. Over the past decades it has become clear that the ones who contributed most to climate change will not have to bear the main burden of its consequences. Questions about justice and responsibility for the climate crisis are therefore increasingly the subject of political and social debates. The event was held in German with live translation in French.

After the Opening Event, the local sustainability weeks started to be implemented. All over Switzerland, more than 400 volunteers have planned 15 Local Sustainability Weeks with over 300 events this year. In 2020, we were able to extend our reach and involve 35 Higher Education Institutions, as compared to 25 in 2018. Unfortunately, the Sustainability Weeks in Rapperswil, Lugano, Geneva and Valais had to be cancelled completely because of COVID-19. The other 11 Sustainability Weeks could take place, even though some cities had to deal with restrictions and several events could not be carried out because of the circumstances. In every case the uncertainty and rapidly changing official measures meant a lot of additional work for the organizers. The effect of the virus was also clearly impacting the number of visitors. Approximately 7,500 people attended the events, as compared to 17,000 in 2019.

Furthermore, the upcoming International Sustainability Week 2020 is planned to take place in September and October this year. Stay tuned!

Learn more about Sustainability Week Switzerland

Learn more about Sustainability Week International