User:RichB34/sandbox/le: Sustainability Week Switzerland

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Title: Sustainability Week Switzerland 1 Introduction 1 History 2 Structure 3 Vision and Goals 5 Mission 6 Activities 6 Awards 7 Sponsors and Partners 7

Title: Sustainability Week Switzerland Introduction Sustainability Week Switzerland (SWS), is the largest student initiative with an emphasis on Sustainability in Switzerland. The initiative raises awareness of Sustainability issues and encourages action in the tertiary education sector. The Local Sustainability Weeks(LSW) take place every spring at numerous universities across the country in the form of event series that are free of charge and open to the public. The initiative is voluntary and organised by students. The first Sustainability Week took place in Spring 2013 at the University of Zürich. The umbrella organisation was founded in 2017 and supported 15 LSW at 36 Swiss universities in 2020. Created from SWS, the Sustainability Week International was founded in 2019, with the goal of spreading the concept internationally.

Infobox Logo Name: Sustainability Week Switzerland, SWS Abbreviation: Sustainability Week - SWS - SWI Foundation: Zürich, 2013 Affiliations: VSN-FDD-FSS, ASOS Website: www.Sustainabilityweek.ch www.Sustainability-week.org www.vsn-fdd-fss.ch

Key figures 2020: Sustainability Week: 15 Universities: 35 Events: > 200 Active participants: > 400 students Public: 15’000-20’000 people Sustainability Week planned worldwide: 12

History The Sustainability Week as a student initiative was created in 2013 and was organized by a small group of students at the University of Zürich. It was created on the basis that the Zürich universities possessed, and continue to possess great potential to become involved in various areas of sustainability. Nonetheless, the topic was barely present in the teaching - it was possible to complete a course of study without ever having engaged with the concept of sustainability. Furthermore, the universities had set insufficient goals regarding the sustainability of their consumption, for example in the areas of energy, water, paper, food and air travel. Therefore, the Sustainability Week wanted on the one hand, to sensitize the students and the institutions involved and on the other hand to communicate the willingness of the student body for diversified education for sustainable development.

The demand for such a student initiative was so great that the following year the Sustainability Week was held both at UZH and at ETH Zürich. Interest and resources have grown steadily since then, so that the third Sustainability Week was carried out simultaneously at the five largest Zürich universities UZH, ETH Zürich, Zürich University of Teacher Education (PHZH), Zürich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and Zürich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW).

In 2017, a team of former organizers from Zürich founded the Sustainability Week Switzerland (SWS) to disseminate the concept of Sustainability Weeks among all universities in Switzerland. Their engagement was successful, and in 2018 Sustainability Weeks took place in 12 cities across Switzerland. With over 250 events and thousands of visitors, the SWS became the largest student movement in the field of Sustainability in Switzerland.

Due to the interest sparked by Sustainability Week outside of Switzerland, Sustainability Week International (SWI) was founded in summer 2019. As of March 2020, SWI counts 12 Local Sustainability Weeks across five continents (Switzerland excluded).

Structure

The SWS is a project of the Swiss Association of Student Organizations for Sustainability (VSN). The SWS and SWI serve as umbrella organizations of the Local Sustainability Weeks and take on a coordinative role. The commitment is voluntary at all levels (SWI, SWS and Local Sustainability Weeks). The members of the SWS core team come from different regions of Switzerland. The core team meets on average once a month and works in the following areas: strategy, internal and external communication, marketing, evaluation, fundraising, finance, university policy and cafeterias.

The Local Sustainability Weeks largely organise themselves autonomously. The structure and size of the organisation teams vary greatly across different cities. The Local Sustainability Weeks are often co-organised by student organisations working in the field. In 2020, Local Sustainability Weeks were organised in the following cities and their respective universities: Basel: Universität Basel, Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz Basel Bern: Universität Bern, Pädagogische Hochschule Bern, Fachhochschule Bern Chur: Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Chur, Pädagogische Hochschule Graubünden Freiburg: Universität Freiburg, Hochschule für Wirtschaft, Hochschule für soziale Arbeit, Hochschule für Gesundheit, Hochschule für Technik und Architektur, Pädagogische Hochschule Freiburg Genf: Université de Genève, The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) Lausanne: Campus Université Lausanne + EPFL, Haute École de travail social et de la santé, Haute école pédagogique Vaud, Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne, La Source - Institut et Haute école de la santé Locarno: SUPSI - Dipartimento formazione e apprendimento Lucerne: Hochschule Luzern, Pädagogische Hochschule Luzern, Universität Luzern Lugano: Franklin University Switzerland, Università della Svizzera Italiana USI, SUPSI Neuchâtel: Université de Neuchâtel Rapperswil: Hochschule für Technik Rapperswil St. Gallen: Universität St. Gallen HSG, Pädagogische Hochschule St. Gallen, Hochschule für Technik, Wirtschaft und soziale Arbeit St. Gallen Valais: Les Roches Windisch: Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz Brugg-Windisch Zürich: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich ETHZ, Universität Zürich, Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften, Pädagogische Hochschule Zürich

Image: Map of Switzerland with Local Sustainability weeks Description: In 2020, 15 Sustainability weeks took place in Switzerland.

Vision and Goals SWS supports students in bringing Sustainability to all aspects of Swiss higher education. The aim is for students in Switzerland to make their institutions role models for sustainability. SWS adheres to the Three Nested Dependencies Model which states that the areas of nature, society and economy are embedded within each other in this order. The absolute boundaries of the biosphere, also known as planetary boundaries, are emphasized as the basis of life and natural capital (the environment) cannot be replaced. Society is built on a natural foundation and in turn, the economy is a construct of our society, created to satisfy our needs. From this perspective, economic motivations such as individual profit maximization or economic growth must not be placed above the state of the environment on which they depend. An intact and protected ecology is the basis for social life as well as all forms of business activity.

The SWS relies on a holistic understanding of sustainability which includes several aspects: the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, the differentiation of global, national, regional and Local levels, the intergenerational solidarity, as well as the multi-layered approach including the individual, societal and political level.

Mission The vision is realized by initiating, supporting and organizing Local Sustainability Week that work on the following four aspects:

1. MENTOR to ACT We mentor youth to teach them the soft and hard skills needed to set up and run Local Sustainability Weeks. We promote and share necessary tools and materials to empower youth communities to act more sustainably and become drivers of meaningful, impactful and positive change in higher education.

2. INFORM to INSPIRE We inform and raise awareness through a series of co-organized events that inspire actions, solutions and impact for a sustainable future. Sustainability events in various formats (e.g. panels, workshops, excursion, talks) are organized free of charge for everyone.

3. EMPOWER to ENABLE We empower students to bring sustainability into all aspects of higher education institutions by implementing demand and solution papers. This enables institutions to become sustainability role models in education, research, governance, strategy, operations, and societal dialogue while embodying sustainability as public institutions on campus through institutional change.

4. ENCOURAGE to CHANGE To have greater impact, we encourage and facilitate collaboration through community- building and connecting like-minded students, staff and the broader public at local, national and international level. We also encourage ourselves to challenge the way we think in order to change the world we live in. Activities The activities of the umbrella organization SWS and the Local Sustainability Weeks are based on the four components of our mission and puts them into practice.

SWS coordinates and supports the Local Sustainability Weeks. In order to facilitate the organization of the Sustainability Weeks, the SWS creates manuals for the various areas of activities and organisation. In addition, a SWS contact person is available to the local teams in case they need support. In order to lay the foundations for a nationwide, networked movement, the SWS organizes three events per year, at which organisers of LSW come together and are supported in planning their week. In autumn, there is a kick-off weekend at which the principles (goals, values, structure, processes, etc.) of the SWS are presented. In November, the representatives of the LSW meet again to exchange and advance the planning of their Sustainability Week in specific workshops. After the implementation of the Sustainability Weeks in spring, the national de-briefing takes place, in which the organizers of the LSW can share their difficulties and successes and take stock of progress. Additionally, a public national opening event is organized every year in a different city at the start of the Sustainability Weeks. Aside from this, SWS is also active in external communication via various channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, website and media releases. In addition, those interested in the organisation are informed about the activities of the Sustainability Week and on general topics of sustainability via a monthly newsletter. SWS also keeps an overview of the financial accounting of the movement and the LSW and carries out fundraising activities.

The LSW usually take place in early March. Various public and free events on Sustainability are organized over a week. In addition to lectures, workshops and film screenings, numerous other types of events are used to convey various aspects of sustainability to the public. This can be a clothing exchange program, a gardening course, a group cooking course using dumped food, a walk to promote sustainable consumption, a bicycle repair course, or a poetry slam. The Sustainability weeks also make it possible to create a dialogue with universities to express our concerns regarding sustainability in teaching and administration.

Awards Sustainability Week Zurich received three awards for its commitment: ISCN in the Student Leadership Award area, Global Clinton Initiative University in the area of ​​environment and climate change, and GUPES Green Gown Awards as “Highly Commended Award”. SWS was a finalist for the ISCN Sustainable Campus Excellence Award in 2018 and won the YoungCaritas Award in 2019, which recognizes the social commitment of young people. SWS also belonged to the first group of the Universitas21 funding program. Sponsors and Partners SWS is funded by the Stiftung Mercator Switzerland and the U Change program until the end of 2020. SWS uses most of the financial resources to support the LSW of which most aree co-financed by their own universities.