Active for Sustainability

The Student Sustainability Committee of VSETH is the first point of contact for student engagement in the field of sustainability. We are a group of students who enjoy balancing intense ETH study schedules with sustainable lifestyles. We motivate each other in realizing both fun and impactful projects – various events, interviews with green ETH spin-offs, divestment campaigns, movie screenings, and more. We enjoy making the campus we walk on, the courses we are taught, and ETH policies more sustainable. The best part of it? We are actively looking for new members! If you are interested in joining any of SSC teams (Events, Communication, Development, Coordination, Finance) do not hesitate to reach out () we’ll happily walk you through what each team is doing.
https://www.ssc.ethz.ch/

The main goal of the Sustainability Initiative of AVETH is to accelerate and facilitate sustainability by/at/for ETH Zurich. We achieve this goal by raising awareness and sparking discussion, as well as facilitating and contributing to initiatives of others.

Our team of scientific staff volunteers coordinate with departments, central administration and ETH Sustainability to collect, evaluate and apply sustainability initiatives at ETH Zurich. ETH Zurich can take on a leadership role as an educational and research institution to face climate change, the greatest challenge of our lifetime.

AVETH Sustainability supports and helps generalize the sustainability efforts of the scientific staff departmental associations.
https://www.aveth.ethz.ch/sustainability/

The Arbeitsgruppe Nachhaltigkeit (AGN, Working Group Sustainability) is a student initiative of the architecture department at ETH. We are promoting the topic of sustainability in architecture at every level of study. For example, the project La Boite targets the wasteful handling of model-building materials and allows for a circular solution. With events series such as "visionenzusammenbauen", which was part of the Sustainability Week 2021, or "Nachhaltig gescheitert?" in cooperation with Archverein, we organise discussions with experts, architects and students concerning future-proof architecture inside and outside of the department. Please find out more about current events and projects on our instagram (@agn_ethz).
https://agn.arch.ethz.ch

The “Sustainability Initiatives @D-​BSSE” (SIB), was founded in 2021 to advocate for more sustainability at the D-​BSSE. We are committed to rethinking and reducing the negative environmental impact within and around our biotechnological research ecosystem. To this end, we initiate fun events that promote sustainability and make us reevaluate our life-​ and working styles for a better planet.
https://bsse.ethz.ch/department/D-BSSE-Initiatives/sib

Initiated by a group consisting of students, doctoral students, and professors, the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering (D-MAVT) founded a Sustainability Commission in 2022. The task of the Sustainability Commission (NaK) is to set sustainability targets based on best available data, to develop measures, and to monitor and report on the outcome of their implementations.
The measures’ goals are:

• To reduce emissions and to improve sustainability
• To improve our knowledge on the subject of sustainability
• To promote exchange on sustainability issues within ETH

Such measures should impact all areas, i.e., teaching, research, and operations, with the goal of reducing emissions significantly and measurably by 2030, as well as of fostering sustainability in a way that can benefit society.

The Sustainability Commission comprises five representatives of the professors of the department as well as two representatives of the scientific staff and two student representatives. Two representatives of the administrative and technical staff of the department are also part of it. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have questions, ideas you would like to have implemented, or if you just want to know more about the commission:

https://mavt.ethz.ch/studies/bachelor/mavt-cares.html

In the department of physics (D-PHYS), we take sustainability seriously. Therefore, we have recently established a Sustainability Committee with representatives from all parts of our department, from students to professors. Our goal is to promote sustainability in a positive manner and to support original internal initiatives. If you want to get involved or have questions, feel free to contact us per e-mail ()!
https://www.phys.ethz.ch/the-department/sustainability.htm

The Transdisciplinarity Lab of the Dept. Environmental Systems Science (USYS TdLab) runs research projects and educational programmes on inter- and transdisciplinary cooperation in the field of sustainable development. Tackling complex problems of sustainable development requires cooperation both between individual disciplines and at the interface between science and practice. We build collaboration processes between researchers and project partners (from practice) where: (1) the knowledge produced is context-dependent, problem- and implementation-oriented; (2) the process of knowledge production integrates diverse participants’ and disciplinary views; and (3) researchers exhibit a flexible and open mindset in uncertain environments, as well as attitudes such as empathy and reflexivity.
https://tdlab.usys.ethz.ch

Sustainability Week Zurich is an organisation by students for students of all big universities in Zurich, namely ZHdK, PHZH, ZHAW, UZH and ETHZ. Their main work lies in the yearly Sustainability Week in March, where they have a week full of events about all kinds of different aspects surrounding sustainability, ranging from workshops on how to set up your own vegetable garden to movie screenings about deforestation to panel discussions about climate change policy.
external page https://nachhaltigkeitswoche.ch/en/home/

NaKo is a committee of the Association of Students of Chemistry, Biochemistry - Chemical Biology, Chemical Engineering and Interdisciplinary Sciences at ETH Zurich (VCS). At the moment, we are mainly involved in educational work with the sustainability talks, lectures on various problems within chemistry and how these can be improved in the long term. We are also working on the redesign of the Teaching Labs and other projects will follow.
https://vcs.ethz.ch/dievcs/kommissionen/nako/

We want to demonstrate how physics and the skills acquired during ETH studies play a role in the sustainable development of society. To this end, we identify former physics students who are pushing for sustainability. The format of our project consists of creating short video statements for social media, in which the alumni provide insight into their engagement and how their physics studies at ETH have proven to be helpful, as well as more in-depth material, such as interviews.
https://whocares.ethz.ch

An 8-week long pro-bono program that matches data science talents from ETH Zurich with non-profit organisations that promote social and environmental causes. Small student teams develop and implement data-driven solutions to increase these organisations’ sustainability impact.
external page https://analytics-club.org/hack4good/

Rootlinks is a non-profit organisation sustained by committed students. The rootlinks team as well as the students solving the sustainability challenges work as volunteers alongside their studies. Our mission is to enable students to become changemakers for sustainability following this concept: During the semester-long rootlinks programme, students from all Zurich universities solve real-world sustainability challenges in interdisciplinary teams. They benefit from skills training, mentoring and new career options. The company, non-profit or public institution that has posed the sustainability challenge receives innovative ideas and an implementable solution.
external page https://www.rootlinks.ch/

Ideaction – student projects for sustainability (social and environmental): Meet up in student teams and make your own sustainability project work – just give it a try! On ideaction.ch you can either join an existing idea and create a project group with like-minded students. Or: you send in your own idea, we publish it on the platform, and other students can build a team around your idea and put it into practice. Have a sneak through the platform and discover the ideas that are waiting for enthusiastic souls like yourself.
external page https://ideaction.ch

PRISMA is a project which initially started as a student initiative in 2018 and is currently one of the biggest teaching innovation motives of ETH. The aim of PRISMA is to provide an environment for students, in which they can develop cross-disciplinary skills in a sustainable fashion on top of their otherwise technical education at ETH. ETH has identified several competencies that students need in their future and enable them to become responsible members of society, out of which PRISMA specifically focuses on a selected few – sensitivity to diversity, adaptability and flexibility, decision-making skills, cooperation and teamwork.
The initiative was discontinued in 2022.

SeedCity is a student-run community garden on Campus Hönggerberg. Since 2010, an oasis of biodiversity has been created on approx. 2100 m², which invites to teach and to learn, to work and to relax, to celebrate and to reflect.
external page https://www.seedcity.ch/

We are the first plant-based cooking hub. We connect our community with the most innovative products, we share new recipes, and we provide our members a place to exchange knowledge and ideas and move towards their personal dietary goal. FooDi aims to offer…

• cooking events in our (virtual or physical) shared kitchen with on-site coaching (e.g. health and sustainability hacks) for our members to cook together in a fun and sharing way
• access to the latest sustainable food products and facts (e.g. how to cook new products, how to get the right nutrients) that also supports local food startups
• an online community to keep the members connected and provide coaching services to help them set their personal dietary goals
  

Reach out if you want to know more or want to become part of the team. We are always looking forward to hearing from you! Social media pages (Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin): @foodicookinghub
external page https://www.foodicookinghub.com/

The student bike club Velove has set up a bike workshop on the Hönggerberg campus. The workshop is open and supervised two to three times per week, in the late afternoon and evening. It offers you the space, all the tools and discounted materials to repair your bike yourself.
external page https://www.facebook.com/VelowerkstattETH
external page https://velovezh.ch/workshop-honggerberg/  

Climate Strike Zurich is a student movement that demonstrates since 2019 for political measures regarding the climate crisis. AG Studierende is a subgroup that coordinates actions from students at higher universities in Zurich. The subgroup is active in the mobilization of students for the Climate Strike manifestations. Furthermore it established demands for the Zurich higher universities and evaluated its responses. The group thrives on grassroot democracy principles where everyone can participate.
external page https://www.klimastreikzh.ch/hochschulen-1  

Circular Horizon is a student initiative of ETH Zurich, which was founded in September 2021 as a non-profit association and participates in Elon Musk's XPRIZE Carbon Removal Competition. We are developing a CO₂ capture and storage facility that will remove 1000 tonnes of CO₂ per year from the atmosphere and the ocean and store it sustainably. The interdisciplinary team consists of over 40 active members from different academic backgrounds and can draw on experience from the SpaceX Hyperloop Competition 2019 and the Not-a-Boring-Competition 2021.
external page https://circularhorizon.ch

As members of the ETH Zurich and closely associated with the Student Sustainability Committee, we started the Divest ETH campaign in 2020 to demand a transparent and sustainable investment strategy from ETH, working towards divesting its assets from fossil fuels altogether. Together with multiple partners – the AVETH, VSETH, SSC, Klimastreik Zurich, Swiss Youth for Climate, and the Sustainability Week Zurich – we entered into a dialogue with members of the ETH Board, the ETH Investment Commission and the ETH Foundation.
external page https://plattform-n.org/project/divest-eth/microsite

Scientific laboratory equipment is often stored unused after its standard usage time, and sadly by default eventually ends up in the trash. In many cases the equipment is still functional, and potentially exactly what a school or university elsewhere needs for the training of talented students. EquipSent seeks to put such resources to better and more sustainable use by redistributing unused devices from high-income countries to partner institutions in low-income countries.
external page https://equipsent.org

Greenlab Zurich is a young group that collaborates with ETH and UZH sustainability teams to spread awareness about more sustainable laboratory practices. The group is made up of PhD and undergraduate students, postdoctoral fellows, laboratory technicians, and principal investigators, most of whom work daily in laboratories. By organizing seminars and workshops, establishing a social media presence, and planning projects which would put us in direct contact with suppliers for laboratory materials, we are promoting ecological, economic, and social sustainability in laboratories around Zurich.
external page https://www.greenlabzurich.uzh.ch/en.html

Klimaplausch wants to engage with societal barriers to effective climate action. We are a student group seeking to establish productive, and trust enabling spaces for diverse stakeholders in society to engage with the topics of sustainability and possible solutions thereto. We undertake projects to engage with the countryside, scientific community and activists. The goals for these projects include developing effective tools in climate communication, building an effective network of ambassadors from different communities, and enabling people to reflect on their values and roles in climate action. Feel free to reach out to us if you want to participate:

Precious Plastic Zurich is a project and a part of the global community of people concerned with the use and recycling of plastic. We believe that the value of this resource should not be lost at the end of products’ lives. There are many creative ways to reuse plastic and produce new valuable objects from it. Join our events to help us with hand-on plastic recycling and spread the awareness about this resource! Instagram: @preciousplasticzurich
external page https://preciousplastic.ch