About

The Sustainability Task Force is open to all GIUZ members (staff and students) regardless of their position. Guests from other departments are welcome.

For info and membership contact us sustainability@geo.uzh.ch. Members of our mailing list will receive all invitations for further meetings and relevant information. 

Activity Report 2020

Activity Report 2021

Activity Report 2022

Activity Report 2023

Planning 2024

• The Sustainability Task Force develops and implements measures to improve sustainability at GIUZ and advises the Executive Board on sustainability issues. 
• It reports to the Head of Infrastructure and regularly informs GIUZ employees about its activities.
• It cooperates with other sustainability bodies at MNF and UZH level. 
• It promotes the dissemination of sustainability-related scientific findings to the public and fosters cooperation with civil society groups.

In March 2019 a group of GIUZ researchers from HG+ developed a "Manifesto for a Sustainable Geography Department" with the aim of starting a bottom-up process among interested people at GIUZ to discuss on how we, as a university department, can take action to reduce our ecological footprint and to become vocal about inequalities stemming from unsustainable resource use. 

In April 2019 a first kick-off-event with interested people from all units took place and the group started to build working groups for different topics. 

In June 2019 the group leader retreat discussed the question of "how GIUZ should be a role model in sustainability" and the group leaders prepared suggestions towards the GIUZ-directors. 

Also in June 2019 the GIUZ-directors officially welcomed this bottom-up initiative and encouraged the group to form a "Sustainability Task Force". 

In September 2019, all GIUZ-staff were invited to participate in the new GIUZ Sustainability Task Force. 

In November 2019 the GIUZ Sustainability Task Force was officially launched by the InVers. 

In January 2020 the constitutive meeting of the GIUZ Sustainability Task Force took place. 

The Sustainability Task Force designates a spokesperson or a coordinating team to communicate with the Department's Executive Board and external stakeholders. The spokesperson or the coordinating team can delegate tasks to other task force members.

Members of the Sustainability Task Force are expected to engage in (at least) one of the working groups. Since 2019 there have been the following working groups: 

• Air miles  
• Department life  
• Outreach  

These working groups can be adapted and/or new working groups can be built at any time. The organization within the working groups is decided upon by the working group members. 

The Sustainability Task Force meets regularly to get feedbacks for their group works and to discuss next steps/new topics.