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 Responsible Transformation, 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

SV Laboratories at the forefront of electricity savings

28.11.23EPFL community

Faced with energy shortages predicted for the end of 2022, the laboratories in the School of Life Sciences have been examining their electricity consumption in an attempt to reduce it. Have these efforts borne fruit?

Travel less without loss © Photo Niels Ackermann, Lundi13 / Design Emphase

Outdoor exhibition highlights the impact of academic travel

10.10.23EPFL

The "Travel Less Without Loss" installation at Place Ada Lovelace examines the environmental impact of air travel and reveals that, as things stand, there’s only one way to significantly cut the carbon emissions associated with flying: taking fewer intercontinental flights.

Aurore Nembrini and Pascal Vuilliomenet. 2023/Alain Herzog - CC-BY-SA 4.0

Two silo breakers awarded at EPFL's graduation ceremony

07.10.23EPFL community

This year’s Outstanding Commitment Award, handed out at EPFL’s Master’s graduation ceremony, went to two people: Aurore Nembrini, the Sustainability & Operations Manager at EPFL’s Sustainability Unit, and Pascal Vuilliomenet, a project manager for EPFL’s Discovery Learning Labs (DLLs) and Sportech initiative.

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Sustainability-related events

Repair café – fix N'replace

Venez apprendre à réparer vos objets

07-12-202307-12-2023

With: fix N’replace association fripperie apprentis école des metiers Lausanne (ETML)
Place and room: DLLEL 0 94.2
Category: Internal trainings

Innovations in carbon capture: porous materials and atom-thick films

11-12-202311-12-2023

With: Prof. Wendy Queen Prof. Kumar Agrawal
Online: https://epfl.zoom.us/j/63821341998
Category: Conferences – Seminars

L’énergie : où la trouver, comment la conserver ? #1

13-12-202313-12-2023

With: Alain Beltran historien de l’électricité, directeur de recherche au CNRS; Anais Kistler cinq fois championne suisse amateure de boxe anglaise, boxeuse professionnelle depuis 2021; Sophie Lufkin architecte, collaboratrice scientifique au Laboratoire d’architecture et de technologie durable de L’EPFL
Place and room: Hall du Rolex Learning Center
Category: Cultural events

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Contact

[email protected]

Sustainability Unit
EPFL
BCH 4103
Av. François Alphonse Forel 3
1015 Lausanne