EPFL Task Force for Climate and Sustainability
© 2020 EPFL
At the beginning of 2020, Martin Vetterli announced the setting up of a "Task Force for Climate and Sustainability". The SV Coms team spoke to Agnès Le Tiec to learn more about the task force and the importance of and for the SV community.
Can you tell us more about the Task Force for Climate and Sustainablity?
Agnès : Beginning of this year, the EPFL Direction entrusted a Task Force for Climate and Sustainability with the drafting of a Climate 2030 action plan for EPFL. The aim of this climate plan is to achieve the carbon neutrality by 2030 and a responsible transformation of the campus.
The Task Force shall also encourage all EPFL departments and units to take ownership of sustainability issues and at the same time reach to position EPFL as a leading academic institution in sustainability matters.
We need to be ambitious and work together on this matter, as the Swiss confederation has requested all Swiss Institutions to reduce our CO2 emissions by 50% based on 2006 levels. For EPFL, this requires a colossal effort because we are now at +42% compared to 2006!
Who is this Task Force?
Agnès: The Task Force for Climate and Sustainability, under the coordination of Barbara Baumann, Deputy General Secretary (President’s office) is composed of 13 permanent members.
The work was carried out in several stages: firstly, in working groups and thereafter in October and November 2020 through a public consultation (Our Climate campaign). The proposed measures were discussed and synthesized within workshops on different topics and were proposed to the management of the Task Force for validation.
What is the place of SV projects in the Climate and Sustainability Task Force?
Agnès: The two most important Sustainability SV projects, Travel Less without Loss (TLWL) and the Green Lab, have been integrated into the campus group.
The experience gained from the TLWL project in the last 18 months has enabled us to provide expertise within the professional mobility workgroup, and allowed a precise quantification of EPFL's capacity for action in this field.
On the matter of reducing CO2 emissions in laboratories, it was under the impetus of the Green Lab pilot project that a workgroup of the same name was set up. The experience of SV sustainability and the pilot projects were much appreciated in the workshops and participative Our Climate Consultation. We, the SV sustainability team, also learned a lot from the students and collaborators around EPFL. The exchange of different points of views and stakeholders is enriching and essential on our way forward. Sustainability is everyone's business and affects all departments!
What will be the conclusion of this work?
Agnès: The creation of the Task Force has made it possible to bring together ideas and initiatives from employees and students. The measures proposed and validated by the Presidency will form the EPFL climate plan for the coming decade. This plan will be driven and implemented by the Vice-Presidency for Responsible Transformation.