Hello and welcome to the YERUN April newsletter! At the beginning of the month, the University of Southern Denmark hosted the YERUN Staff Days, which this year focused on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The virtual event brought together more than 150 colleagues from across the YERUN network, who exchanged views and practices on the SDGs and how they engage with them in their everyday life. Do you want to know more about it? Here is a nice playlist summarising the inspiring discussions! On 22 April, we also celebrated the World Earth Day, which provides a moment of reflection across the globe on what we can and must do to protect our planet. To wrap-up this exciting month, we dedicate this newsletter to projects and initiatives carried out by YERUN universities with regard to sustainability. Enjoy your read! 

Click here to read the YERUN April Newsletter!

The YERUN President, and Rector of the University of Bremen, Professor Bernd Scholz-Reiter, was recently interviewed by the Croatian magazine 'Vox Academiae', which is a special supplement to regional newspaper Novi list Daily, dedicated to higher education, science, and arts. The 39th issue of the magazine featuring the interview was published on Friday 23 April.

Sustainable development is a high priority goal for the University of Konstanz and a topic that it deals with intensively, both institutionally and academically. In 2015, it was the first university in Germany that established a student-led Green Office, and a continuous working group “Sustainable Development” was founded in 2020. More recently, in April 2021, the university’s  new Vice Rector for Sustainability, Information and Communication Technology, Professor Christine Peter, took office, anchoring sustainable development goals (SDGs) at the highest level of leadership at the university.

Bringing beneficial impact to individuals and communities is central to the DNA of Dublin City University. DCU's aspiration is to be known as a University of Transformation and Impact that strives to deliver on the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The University of Eastern Finland has calculated its carbon footprint. Last year the university set up several groups of experts to carry out the carbon footprint calculation and come up with ways to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality. The groups comprised experts from the university and representatives from the university’s partners, such as the Student Union, University Properties of Finland Ltd, and campus restaurants. The work was carried out in five groups, each respectively focusing on facilities, procurements, travel, campus restaurants and laboratories.