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 Support to Strategic Initiatives (VPS), 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

Data centers are major electricity consumers. © iStock

Can energy-hungry AI help cut our energy use?

24.03.25EPFL

It takes ten times more electricity for ChatGPT to respond to a prompt than for Google to carry out a standard search. Still, researchers are struggling to get a grasp on the energy implications of generative artificial intelligence both now and going forward.

Arboreal Futures, EPFL Pavilions © Julien Gremaud, Climanosco 2024

If trees could speak, what help would they ask from technology?

18.12.24EPFL

As an artist in residence at the Plant Ecology Research Laboratory (PERL), Krzysztof Wronski presents a series of unconventional and thought-provoking installations at the EPFL Pavilions, on display until January 5, 2025.

"Letters Found Under the World-Tree": Awarded texts

17.12.24EPFL community

In collaboration with the student literary association Plume, EPFL’s Sustainability Unit co-organized a writing contest in French on the theme “Letters Found Under the World-Tree.” Four submissions captured the jury’s attention and were awarded prizes.

All news

Sustainability-related events

Summer School – From Science to Action

In today’s interconnected world, where complex issues transcend borders, the intersection of scientific progress and societal needs has never been more critical. Climate change, biodiversity loss, and emerging health…

18.08.202522.08.2025

Speaker: Speakers
Category: Conferences – Seminars
Target audience: Informed public