In its meeting on 14 December 2018, the University Board decided that the University of Turku becomes carbon neutral by the end of the year 2025. Since that decision the university has calculated its carbon footprint every year and has been actively looking for ways to reduce it.
The University of Turku participated in the Climate Leadership Coalition’s (CLC) Zero Emissions Day campaign by emphasising the significance of food choices and food waste. The climate positive culture is visible on campus, for example, as high quality food research that offers support and new possibilities for making climate-friendly food choices. These themes were featured during the week of the Zero Emissions Day on 21–25 September as the University’s researchers set out on Twitter to discuss intriguing perspectives related to food.
The University of Turku participated in the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Ranking 2020 which ranks universities according to their success in delivering the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Funded by the World Bank, the Resilience Academy project consists of collaboration between the University of Turku and four Tanzanian universities to offer knowledge, tools, and digital skills for the African youth to enable better resilience and urban development in African cities.
The University of Turku has completed an estimate of the University’s carbon footprint. The largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions are properties and travel, especially flights. In addition, the carbon footprint of laboratories and other experimental research was significant.
The energy consumption of the fast-growing ICT industry is expected to significantly increase in the future. Organised by the Steering Group for Sustainable Development, Digital futures thematic collaboration, and the Department of Future Technologies, the Towards Sustainable ICT seminar focused on the carbon footprint of the ICT industry and aimed at finding ways to decrease the energy consumption of the industry.
Several universities and other higher education institutions around the world have signed a letter to acknowledge the severity of climate change. The letter will be delivered to the COP 25 climate meeting organised in Spain in December. The University of Turku and the Student Union of the University of Turku have signed the letter.
Lately, the sustainability impact of the ICT industry, especially its large energy consumption and carbon footprint, have been a topic in public debate. The sustainability perspectives in the ICT industry will be discussed in an open seminar at the University of Turku on 10 December 2019.
The University of Turku participates in the Zero Emissions Day campaign organised by the Climate Leadership Coalition. The objective of the campaign is to give the Earth a fossil fuel free day and to address harmful emissions. Different aspects of sustainable development have also been highly prominent in the University’s strategic planning process. Already before the beginning of the new strategy period, the University’s carbon footprint is being determined and education on sustainable development advanced.
In spring 2019, the University of Turku and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding for advancing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 9 on creating a sustainable industry, innovations, and infrastructures. The collaboration was launched with a two-day seminar on Monday, 26 August.