Finnish universities published shared theses on sustainable development and responsibility in 2020. The biggest change in the update, made in partnership with the Council of Rectors of Finnish Universities (Unifi), focuses on the carbon neutrality targets for universities. Nature positivity emerges strongly alongside climate action in the updated theses.
Specialist in Sustainable Development Jutta Mäkinen from the University of Turku has been involved in updating the universities’ sustainability theses as part of Unifi's Sustainability and Responsibility Working Group.
The biggest update to the sustainability and responsibility theses of the Finnish universities concerns thesis number 7, which aimed at making universities carbon neutral by 2030.
“The update was guided by the information we have gathered at the universities from the practical implementation and promotion of the sustainability and responsibility theses. For example, it is important to continue to strive for carbon neutrality, but simply reducing carbon emissions is too narrow an approach to global environmental problems. At the University of Turku, we updated the University's carbon neutrality goal last autumn to reflect a new objective of acting more broadly for a positive impact on climate and nature," says Mäkinen.
The University will continue to monitor its climate and biodiversity impact through measuring its carbon and biodiversity footprints, and aims to reduce them, for example, by reducing indirect emissions, such as emissions from business travel.
“Similar to the Unifi's renewed theses, we are also highlighting the positive impact of the University. The University's basic missions of research and education inevitably generate emissions, but at the same time they give us the opportunity to make a positive long-term impact on climate and nature. For example, the decision of the University Board to establish the Department of Biodiversity Sciences will strengthen both biodiversity research and the teaching and societal impact based on it," says Mäkinen.
The update of the universities’ theses highlights carbon and nature impacts as important research topics, which contributes to the development of reliable compensation methods as well as tools for sustainability work in the wider society.
“Universities' pioneering leadership and co-operation in identifying and mitigating climate and nature impacts will also serve as an example to other actors in society, encouraging actions that mitigate the effects of biodiversity loss and climate change.”
More information on the universities’ updated sustainability and responsibility theses and the implementation of the theses originally published in 2020 can be found on Unifi's website.
