Operations

Sustainability is considered a university-wide mission at the University of Vienna. In order to successfully complete this mission and implement effective measures, there are clear structures in place – from the Vice-Rectorate for Infrastructure and the Sustainability Office to the steering committee and the Sustainability Advisory Board. Together, they lead and develop strategies towards a climate-neutral and sustainable University of Vienna.

The University of Vienna has set itself the goal to become climate-neutral by 2030. In 2021, the Sustainability Advisory Board was founded and a document was approved stating its guiding principles, including the goal of making the University of Vienna climate-neutral. In order to achieve this goal, the University of Vienna presented a greenhouse gas balance for the reference year 2019. Based on the results, a roadmap was created with the goals, measures and fields of action to achieve climate neutrality for the considered areas of energy usage, mobility and use of resources. As the largest university in the German-speaking area, the University of Vienna contributes to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and integrates sustainability in its structures, processes and university culture.

A greenhouse gas balance showing the current status of emissions provides a starting point for measures and serves as the foundation for our goal of achieving climate neutrality. The first balance was created in 2019, since the years 2020 and 2021 did not represent our usual emission levels due to the pandemic. The balance was calculated with the tool ClimCalc by the Alliance of Sustainable Universities in Austria, which the University of Vienna has been a member of since 2021. The balance records emissions from energy consumption, mobility and resources, which makes it possible to compare developments and monitor progress in a transparent way. An additional balance is being created for the reference year 2025 in order to evaluate to what extent measures have been implemented and goals have been met so far.

Further details on the greenhouse gas balance

Our roadmap to climate neutrality describes the crucial steps we need to take on the path to becoming a climate-neutral university. It shows set priorities and defined interim targets, and provides transparency with regards to progress which takes into account emissions in the areas of energy consumption, mobility and use of resources. With the implementation of direct measures, the University of Vienna intends to reduce at least two thirds of its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The reduction by the remaining third should be reached through compensation measures. The roadmap is based on the data from 2019 as the reference year.

More details on the roadmap