01 Making real choices

We can look back on a year with many accomplishments in the field of sustainability at Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR). The need for change is becoming more visible, and society is calling for urgent action. And even though we have achieved a lot, change needs to happen faster still.

EUR’s Strategy 2024 focuses on creating positive societal impact. An important part of reaching positive impact involves creating a sustainable world. Our goal is to embed sustainability in everything we do and make it part of our very DNA. This also became clear after the Strategy’s midterm review, which took place in the summer of 2022. According to the midterm panel, sustainability needs a more prominent role in our strategy. All EUR staff and students have a role to play in making this happen.

The university's ambitions regarding sustainability were outlined in 2019. Since then, we have fleshed these out with more concrete plans and activities. The key elements are presented in this 2022 progress report.

EUR recognizes the climate and ecological emergency in which we find ourselves and is therefore working to accelerate the implementation of an ambitious sustainability programme that actively involves the Erasmus community. In 2022, two new masters were launched in the field of sustainability. Students actively contribute in the Erasmus Sustainability Hub, in the Eurekaweek, in faculty councils and in the University Council.

Change is needed for us to become eco-positive. By "eco-positive", we mean going beyond doing no harm to the environment and actually adding more value to it. This obviously includes becoming carbon neutral, or even carbon positive. But it also relates to our use and generation of resources and to our contribution to human well-being. This is all part of our responsibility to the planet as a whole. One of the steps that has been taken this year is the new measure that employees may no longer book flights for business trips under 700 kilometres.

Members of the Erasmus community have increasingly stressed the need to put an ambitious sustainability policy into practice at the earliest possible opportunity. That increasing urgency also became clear during the occupation of Sanders Building in November 2022.

We have a clear vision of what an eco-positive university entails and how this would translate into an implementation programme. Essentially, it demands deep systemic change away from a fossil-based, consumption-driven and growth-oriented model of development. Doing a little less of this and a bit more of that will not be enough. Rather, fundamental change is required, which demands bold institutional policy. In short, we must go beyond low-hanging fruit and easy solutions, and this report describes what actions we are taking.

The concept of sustainability is used in a broad sense, according to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. EUR is working hard to make these goals an integral part of our core business: education and research, as well as part of our operations. Extensive information on how our research and education relate to the SDGs can be found in our SDG mapper.

Figure 1.3 Top 5 SDGs to which our research, education and operations relate the most.