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The Austrian Sustainability
Award for Universities
Anna Streissler, FORUM Umweltbildung, Austria
T
he Austrian Sustainability Award for Universities is an
integral part of the Austrian Strategy for Education for
Sustainable Development and specifically puts sustaina-
bility on the agenda of all Austrian universities. The award helps
to make sustainability not only part of the mission statement but,
more importantly, of everyday university life. It adds visibility to
existing projects by ambitious and committed pioneers, and it
fosters internal networking and coordination of these projects
by the university as a whole, thus embedding sustainability more
strongly in the overall university culture. It encourages system-
atic exchange of good practice between institutions of higher
education and makes them aware that sustainability is a core
dimension of university development all over the world.
History and background of the award
The award is a joint initiative of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture,
Forestry, Environment and Water Management and the Federal
Ministry of Science and Research and was established in 2007 as
a means of promoting and increasing awareness for sustainability
processes within Austrian universities. After an initial phase of
networking and communication with the relevant stakeholders, the
project now supports pioneers in this field by organizing the nation-
wide award to encourage higher education institutions to practise
sustainable higher education.
For Austria, the innovation was to link a publicity-related
approach with an internal learning process and benchmarking. The
award was also the first approach to link different (and separate)
sustainability initiatives among different universities.
Until 2007, many university initiatives for sustainable develop-
ment were isolated and did not get the necessary support from
their administrations. Inviting the whole university (from the vice-
chancellor and pro-vice-chancellors downwards) to take part in
the award competition led to 42 applications by 13 universities.
Two years later, 17 universities submitted projects. The number
of submissions stayed roughly the same (45), due to much more
internal coordination within the universities.
Characteristics of the award
The award exhibits a whole-institution approach. Thus, it is
addressed to a large target group consisting of students, teachers,
staff, administration and regional stakeholders. University-wide
sustainability is understood as a process of participatory and reflec-
tive learning, characterized by several alternative routes.
It does not target individual or one-time projects, but instead
recognizes long-term processes and improvements that mirror
the internal learning and formation processes of the institution
as a whole, concerning eight very different aspects of
university organization. A project in each of the eight
categories receives an Austrian Sustainability Award.
The categories are:
• Administration and Management
• Curriculum and Instruction
• Research
• Structural Implementation
• Communication and Decision-making
• Student Initiatives
• Regional Integration
• International Integration.
For each of these categories, a series of guiding ques-
tions was developed to help applicants locate their
initiatives within these different aspects. Participation,
learning and innovation are required to be at the very
heart of these initiatives.
An interdisciplinary jury of sustainability experts
(from science and research, business, culture and media)
decides on the winner in each of the eight categories.
The first award ceremony took place in March 2008 and
the second in March 2010. The award is coordinated
by FORUM Umweltbildung, an agency specialising in
education for sustainable development (ESD).
Eight examples of good practice in Austrian univer-
sities (2008-2010)
Administration and Management: mentoring programme
for women at the University of Vienna (2010)
The Center for Gender Equality of the University
of Vienna developed the mentoring programme in
order to advance the scientific careers of women.
Female junior scientists can apply to participate in
the 18-month programme. Groups of four women
are mentored by one scientist to get strategic knowl-
edge and build networks. The interdisciplinary
groups are also offered seminars on key compe-
tences. Another aim of the project is to critically
examine traditional mentoring relationships and
gendered hierarchies within the university with the
goal of reforming them. One of the next steps is to
disseminate the findings of the project in an inter-
national context.
Curriculum and Instruction: International Joint Masters
Programme in Sustainable Development (2008)