“Sustainability is an integral part of our university DNA”
Claudia Zingerli, Head of ETH Sustainability, takes inventory after two years in office: as a change agent, she wants to ensure that resource-conscious behaviour becomes an even more powerful principle at ETH Zurich. ?
How do you recognise what “sustainability” means? “Less theoretically and more with open senses,” says Claudia Zingerli. In a forest for example, which is managed close to nature, where there is humming and buzzing in one place, harvested trees in another, and a weathered tree stump sticking out of the ground around the corner. One can also imagine a city neighbourhood, in an urban yet sustainably designed meeting zone. Such places can make it possible to experience the cyclical processes of creation and decay, as well as the impact of humans on our socio-ecological system: “In order to understand the importance of sustainability and why we need to act in a way that conserves resources, you have to relate to the immediate and wider contexts and create a level of experience,” says the sustainability expert who earned a PhD in Development Studies.
Creating shared space for experience
I meet with Claudia Zingerli to take stock of two years in office. That is how long she has been Head of ETH Sustainability, the sustainability office at ETH Zurich. Her professional career in the multidimensional field of sustainability, however, has spanned over more than 20 years. In her view, a lot has happened at ETH since she was first employed at the university in 2002: ”An awareness of sustainability has captured ETH,” she states gladly.
“Sustainability is a life-affirming concept that is about preserving what forms the basis of our existence over many generations.”Claudia Zingerli, Head ETH Sustainability
What exactly is her role as a external page change agent and Head of ETH Sustainability? One can see it at ETH's first Net Zero Day on May 28, 2024: she passionately describes how the idea of a day dedicated to a climate-neutral ETH grew almost organically in an exchange between ETH Sustainability and other university stakeholders such as the Student Project House, the Student Sustainability Committee and the NGO “Circular Horizon” and how the image of a joint expedition to Net Zero was developed collaboratively.
“This day is a milestone for the ETH community, which is coming together here in its diversity and in the pursuit to reach our climate goal Net Zero,” says Zingerli. It is also an expression of the way ETH Sustainability works: “As with Net Zero Day, we are constantly creating spaces for the university community to reflect and experiment together. We design resource-conscious and agile collaborative projects and processes,” she explains. This includes the diverse consultation processes in preparation for the “ETH Net Zero Programme”. “Together, we are working towards the same goal: to significantly reduce ETH's greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.”
However, the diversity of stakeholders and perspectives in the field also bears challenges. Although there are no myths surrounding sustainability, various definitions of it are in use, some of which tend to be overused. For Claudia Zingerli, it is important to cultivate a notion of a strong sustainability: ecological, social and economic. These three dimensions ?speak to each other and it is important not to fragment them or play them off against each other.? This requires very serious consideration of conflicting objectives and a high degree of sovereignty in decisions that take this "triple bottom line" into account. She also uses different terms and approaches when discussing sustainability, depending on the context. It is important for her to convey that sustainability cannot be understood solely in scientific and rational terms. ?Sustainability is a life-affirming concept that is about preserving what forms the basis of our existence over many generations. It touches us, our emotions, but also our values and society as a whole.?
Harnessing diversity to stretch boundaries
She herself promotes a nuanced discourse on sustainability at ETH by offering as many different approaches to the field as possible: ?ETH unites so many different stakeholders and ways of thinking. So the university already has many of the tools necessary for a satisfactory approach to sustainability matters and the associated fields of action. For example, the understanding of being able to work together productively on the basis of interdisciplinarity and diversity and to shape new practices. All of this in the spirit of the external page 2030 Agenda for ?People, Planet, Prosperity.?
Does it take every single person in this broad spectrum of actors and initiatives to anchor sustainability even more firmly at ETH in the long term and achieve Net Zero? ?Definitely!?, says Claudia Zingerli. With regard to sustainable development, ETH is a learning organization. Social responsibility and the goal of Net Zero are set, but the path to achieving them will most definitely lead over yet undiscovered terrain.
About
Claudia Zingerli has been Head of ETH Sustainability since June 2022, having previously worked at ETH Zurich as Project Leader (2002-2006), Education Lead of Climate-KIC Switzerland and lecturer at D-USYS (2010-2014). Between 2014 and 2022, she was scientific coordinator of the external page Swiss Programme for Research on Global Issues for Development at the Swiss National Science Foundation and of the external page Solution-oriented Research for Development Programme. She has been a board member of the external page Swiss Academic Society for Environmental Research and Ecology since 2009 and is involved in other honorary mandates. She holds a Master's degree in Geography, Social Anthropology, and Economics from the Universities of Basel and Freiburg im Breisgau and a PhD in Development Studies from the University of East Anglia. In her free time, she can be found in her natural garden on the edge of a forest in Zurich, in the ballet hall or with her family in the “wilderness” of the French Alps.