Community Involvement

Semaine de la Durabilité, printemps 2022 © Toussain Cardot / Unipoly
Sustainability Week 2022 © Jérôme Cherix / Unipoly

The EPFL community, and many students in particular, are mobilized within a veritable teeming of associations working for environmental and social sustainability. The Vice-Presidency for Responsible Transformation (VPT) can provide a small amount of financial support to associations wishing to carry out innovative projects linked to the themes of sustainability and equality/diversity.

Support for student projects

A call for projects is launched twice a year at the beginning of each semester: any association or project in need of funding linked to environmental or social sustainability can apply.

→ For any questions, please contact [email protected]

Projects supported in autumn 2023

Spice League: a local, seasonal and zero-waste cooking competition for students taking place in March 2024.

180°C is a cookery association set up by UNIL-EPFL students.

Read the news of January 30, 2024

Reducing the textile consumption of events by replacing annual T-shirts and jumpers with a single staff uniform badge.

AGEPoly is EPFL’s general student association.

Wax upgrading for candles and embossed wax sheets.

UniPoly – Apiculture has beehives and aims to raise awareness among students and staff on campus of the problem of bee colony collapse disorder and to familiarise them with beekeeping.

Increasingly include sustainability and prevention measures in the festive environment.

Artiphys is a festival organised by students every year in March.

Second edition of the Canard Huppé, UniPoly’s participatory newspaper.

Conférence “Meat the future: A discussion about alternatives to the challenges of animal agriculture.”

Effective altruism is a project that aims to find the best ways to help others, and put them into practice.

Sentience weeks offer films and conferences on the theme of animal rights.

Etudiant·e·s Véganes et Animalistes promotes a vegan lifestyle on campus.

Ecological advent calendar.

IDM is an EPFL-UNIL association encouraging students to become responsible engineers for a fair and sustainable world.

Meubléco market

Meubléco organises a furniture market on the UNIL-EPFL campus, raising awareness of the need to buy second-hand furniture.

MUSICAL concert with narration by PLUME and other artistic associations, in an inclusive context.

Plume is EPFL’s literary association, with a strong sustainability focus.

Menstruation solidarity: distribution of free vouchers for menstruation products.

Polyquity is an association whose aim is to raise awareness, promote exchange, cooperation and action in favour of gender equality.

Alpine Lake Expedition – promoting frugal and low-tech science and raising awareness of the need to protect aquatic environments.

Sailowtech is a student project promoting sailing, exploration and awareness of marine biodiversity.

La Sustainability week hosts conferences, round tables, film screenings and other activities from 4 to 8 March 2024.

Unipoly is the association for a united ecology on the UNIL-EPFL campuses.

Drawing up a preventive plan for the event.

Student’s games are a sporting event held in April on the UNIL-EPFL campuses.

General and campus-related knowledge quiz about sustainability.

TriviaPoly organizes quiz competitions on a mix of topics and the bolstering of general knowledge amongst EPFL and UNIL students.

Purchase of repair equipment.

UP Fashionlab organises creative sewing, crochet and customisation workshops, as well as Fix’n replace, to pass on practical knowledge on how to recycle clothes and offer alternatives to the highly polluting textile industry.

Creation of a low-cost, open-source integrated machine to enable as many people as possible to recycle their waste.

EPFL Xplore is a student-led space robotics project from EPFL, part of the MAKE initiative in Switzerland.

Energy and ressources forum III hosts a conference day on March 18th, 2024, about the sustainable transition.

Zero Emission Group is an association working on projects for a zero carbon society to stay within the planetary boundaries.

Projects supported in spring 2023

Support for the 2nd edition of their cookbook with a focus on vegetarian dishes.

180° is a cooking association launched by UNIL-EPFL students.

Read the news of January 30, 2024

Contribution towards the purchase of reusable drinkwatches.

AGEPoly is EPFL’s general student association.

Support for training in the prevention of sexist and sexual violence and invitations to local artists.

Artiphys is a festival organized by students every year in March.

Support for its Vert-Tigo expedition.

Genorobotics is a MAKE project aimed at improving techniques for identifying and monitoring biodiversity.

Sponsorship of its “butterfly effect” photo contest promoting sustainability issues.

IDM is an EPFL-UNIL association encouraging students to become responsible engineers for a fair and sustainable world.

Support for their poetry competition “Rêver dans un monde qui brûle”.

Plume is EPFL’s literary association, with a strong sustainability component in its concerns.

Read the news of August 4, 2023

Support for their training needs.

RebuiLT is a materials reuse project to build a low-tech community pavilion in Ecublens. 

Sponsoring an event to raise awareness of ocean preservation.

Sailowtech is a student project promoting sailing, exploration and awareness of marine biodiversity.

Sponsorship to make the event more inclusive through preventive measures and improve sustainability aspects (food, public transport, etc.).

The Student’s games are a sporting event held in April on the UNIL-EPFL campuses.

Support for the implementation of respect and sustainability measures (training, safe zone, vegetarian meals, etc.).

Sysmic is a music festival held every year in October.

Support for the Sustainability Week’s conferences, roundtables and film screenings.

Unipoly is the association for ecology and solidarity on the UNIL-EPFL campuses.

Financing organic and farmers’ seeds.

The Unipoly garden offers permaculture activities and shared practices on plots of land close to the Génopode (UNIL).

A selection of projects supported by Act for Change LAB

Act for Change LAB was an EPFL initiative supported by U-Change, a program encouraging sustainable development at Swiss universities. From 2018 to 2022, Act for Change LAB supported members of the EPFL community in promoting sustainable projects on campus. Here is a selection:

Cargo Bike Band is a touring music group traveling on cargo bikes. Anyone can join them to play at their year-round concerts.

Read the news of May 19, 2023

Le Castor Freegan is a hub of the Unipoly association preparing vegan meals from unsold food to combat food waste.

Read the news of November 24, 2022

Caulys is an automated, hydroponically-powered urban farming space, with the idea of approaching an “agriculture” of the future. Today, it’s a business.

Read the news of August 5, 2019

CHEAP is a project designed to offer a second life to wooden pallets and objects to make furniture in a sustainable way.

Read the news of August 12, 2019

Read the news of December 6, 2019

D’izi Fruits is a giant fruit press run by the mechanical force of a pedal-powered merry-go-round.

Ecolens is a mobile application project designed to promote sustainable eating on campus through gamification. Today, it is a hub of Unipoly.

Read the news of March 16, 2021

Read the news of April 6, 2022

Epilibre is a bulk grocery store on campus. Today, it is a hub of Unipoly.

Read the news of September 22, 2020 

L’Espace-Transitions is a team of staff and students offering a space for exchange in the face of social and environmental emergency, and running workshops on themes linked to emotions and associative commitment. It is an integral part of UNIL’s Centre de Compétences en Durabilité.

Read the news of March 3, 2023

Meubléco is a project that organizes bartering of second-hand furniture. Today, it is a hub of Unipoly.

Read the news of June 22, 2023

La Pergola is a multifunctional sharing space on campus.

UP Fashion Lab is a thrift shop selling second-hand clothes at low prices at the Vortex. Today, it is a hub of Unipoly.

Read the news of June 23, 2021

Verti’SKIL is a project designed to (re)-discover greenery on campus in collaboration with SKIL. The project provided an open-air laboratory for testing the benefits of the green wall.

Contact

Guillaume Rueff, community engagement project manager

[email protected]