Sustainability

Sustainability is one of our strategic focus areas, and we’re committed to incorporating it into our operations – across all our campuses – as we pursue our missions of education, research and innovation.

Campus © EPFL Niels Ackermann / Lundi13 (2021)

The climate and sustainability challenges we face are urgent, global and complex, and EPFL can help meet them by acting at the crossroads of education, research and innovation. We’re committed to providing a sustainability-oriented education to our entire community, to finding sustainable solutions through research, and to transforming these solutions into useful tools for society through innovation. We also intend to make our campuses more resilient to climate change by taking concrete steps in all areas of our operations.

To move us towards our goals, we developed a Climate & Sustainability Strategy that provides a 360° view of the measures we’re implementing to make EPFL a more climate-responsible, sustainable School.

Our efforts have also included setting up a Sustainability Team within the Vice Presidency for Responsible Transformation, and working with partner networks both inside and outside EPFL to help us achieve our sustainability goals.

Climate & Sustainability Strategy

EPFL carbon footprint

What actions are possible on an individual level?

Focus areas

Our three missions

Education

Research

Innovation

Campus operations

Energy and Buildings

Sustainable IT Systems

Procurement and Waste Management

Sustainable finances and third-party funding

Academic Travel

Commuting

Food Services

Resilient Campus

Outreach and Awareness Building

Sustainability-related news

Tree Phenoplasticity transcribed into a choreography

20.11.24EPFL

Supported by EPFL Sustainability, an exhibition at the EPFL Pavilions brings together art and science based on the work of the Plant Ecology Research Laboratory (PERL). Using human bodies, one of the featured artists chose to represent how trees adapt to their environment.

Our sustainability efforts are making a real difference

01.11.24EPFL

Eighteen months after the release of EPFL’s first Climate & Sustainability Strategy, we’ve put together a progress report detailing the steps we’ve taken and the results we’ve achieved, in both our School’s core missions and other areas where we can proactively reduce our carbon footprint.

Siroune Der Sarkissian - 2024 EPFL/Alain Herzog - CC-BY-SA 4.0

“We can help students develop their critical thinking skills”

23.09.24EPFL

Siroune Der Sarkissian is helping to transform EPFL’s degree programs by incorporating a sharp sustainability focus. She spent 15 years working for a multinational, until her growing desire to make a positive impact prompted her to switch career paths.

All news

Sustainability-related events

Sustainability Collider

Confronting Challenges in Materials Innovation and Circularity for Industries Co-organized by the Vice Presidency for Responsible Transformation (VPT) and EPFL’s Innovation Park “Tech4Regen” startup accelerator,…

25-11-202425-11-2024

Place and room: Forum Rolex – RLC E1 240
Category: Conferences – Seminars