The 2030 Agenda: Our responsibility as a university
Christine Bratrich is convinced that an institution such as ETH Zurich must commit itself to the goals of the 2030 Agenda, and outlines what this commitment involves.
Overcome extreme poverty worldwide by 2030. Significantly reduce marine pollution by 2025. Raise 100 billion dollars annually by 2020 to finance urgent climate protection in developing countries. These are some of the many demands the United Nations (UN) has set out in its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They were adopted in 2015 by all 193 UN member states, within the framework of the 2030 Agenda. But how should we as a university deal with politically formulated sustainability goals?
"Good goals are smart goals that are specific, measurable, realistic and achievable within the planned timeframe.” Our students learn this principle in their basic studies; but compared to a university’s strict scientific requirements, the UN development goals may seem contradictory, unrealistic or, at best, visionary. So should we just concentrate on our core business of precise research and ignore any serious examination of SDGs? My answer to this is an unequivocal No. Particularly as a university, we must commit ourselves to the 2030 Agenda – urgently and earnestly.
Politics needs sound knowledge and technology
Despite legitimate criticism of the practical feasibility of 17 global goals with 169 sub-goals, the SDGs put their finger on the sore spots of our planet and integrate the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development.
More importantly, unlike the Millennium Development Goals, which focused primarily on developing countries, the goals of the 2030 Agenda apply to all countries. This means countries are called upon equally to solve the pressing challenges of the world together, and to commit themselves to sustainable development in their own countries.
With the rise of fake news and a boom in conspiracy theories, objective knowledge and sound technical solutions are needed more urgently than ever. As scientists, we must learn to appreciate the value of political negotiation and put our work at the service of the general public – even if we’re aware that we can achieve some of the political visionary goals only partially or in the distant future.
?We must make it even easier for our students to contribute to the multi-layered development of a sustainable future?Christine Bratrich
Promoting sustainable development is therefore both our mission and our goal. Our new website shows, using examples from research, teaching and campus (see box), how ETH Zurich is taking on this responsibility and working specifically to implement SDGs.
Promoting tomorrow's leaders
A core aspect that lies close to my heart, and where perhaps ETH Zurich contributes the most to sustainable development, is in the professional training of highly motivated and committed students: These are the individuals who will later assume responsibility and set an example in our society. As well as providing a sound education in technical and scientific basics, we must equip our students even better to make a contribution to the multi-layered development of a sustainable future. It’s a matter of inspiring students to address key challenges for the future of our society, and of firing them up to solve complex problems. Flexible and creative teaching formats such as in ETH Week or the Critical Thinking Initiative can help here.
Good, but there’s still room for improvement
Of course, ETH Zurich is generating new knowledge and transferring technology from research into practice all the time. In addition to teaching, this is our core competence and contributes to our goals at various levels. Nevertheless, in the spirit of the SDGs, we should also focus our efforts on those activities which we can - and want to - specifically improve at ETH Zurich.
Let me give two examples. ETH Zurich is still a long way from fulfilling "the full and effective participation of women, and equal opportunities for them in assuming leadership roles at all levels" (SDG 5). equal! is therefore specifically promoting women in order to improve equal opportunities between men and women at all levels at ETH – through the Gender Action Plan, for instance.
We’re also looking for a cultural change in air travel, for this still accounts for around 60 percent of the university's total CO2 footprint. We need more virtual alternatives for international research cooperation in order to meet the challenge of climate change (SDG 13) within our scientific community too.
ETH Zurich has set up a participatory process to address this; all departments and central bodies have committed to target scenarios and drawn up appropriate measures for meeting them. ETH's Mobility Platform is supporting the process and monitoring results.
How ETH is contributing to the SDGs
On 20 June 2018, the Federal Council published Switzerland's first external page country report on the implementation of external page 2030 Agenda. Universities can play a decisive role in meeting the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The ETH Zurich staff unit, ETH Sustainability, uses teaching programmes, centres, networks and initiatives to demonstrate how ETH is helping to implement the SDGs. You can find the summary here.