The Technical University of Munich (TUM) has anchored the topic of sustainability in university leadership to ensure robust realization of its Sustainable Futures Strategy. Werner Lang, TUM Professor of Energy Efficient and Sustainable Design and Building, is the new TUM Vice President Sustainable Transformation after already winning the TUM Sustainability Award 2022.

TUM has declared sustainability to be an integral guiding vision for its plan of action. President Prof. Thomas F. Hofmann recently presented the TUM Sustainable Futures Strategy 2030 at the first TUM Sustainability Day in October 2022. With six action fields, it addresses the challenges of the sustainable transformation of the university and society with a “whole-institution-approach”.

Research: TUM encourages and supports research activities that contribute to the sustainable transformation of society. To this end, the university provides targeted support for the digitalization and scaling of developed solution strategies while taking ecological, political and societal aspects into account.

Education and Lifelong Learning: TUM helps students, employees and alumni as well as external expert and management staff develop their own understanding of sustainability. Above and beyond the spectrum of university teaching and continuing education, TUM conveys competencies in data-based and evidence-based sustainable behaviors.

Entrepreneurship and Innovation: TUM promotes and empowers founders in leveraging their own entrepreneurial opportunities to accelerate sustainable transformation. In the future, innovative technologies, products and services as well as new business models are to unite economic success with ecological and social responsibility.

Campus Operations and Resource Management: As an organization, the university itself is to serve as an exemplary model for the deployment of a sustainable and resilient society. The university’s tasks include reducing consumption of energy and resources, cutting greenhouse gas emissions, increasing energy and resource efficiency and reduced-emission mobility as well as improving equality, diversity, inclusion and providing healthy working and studying conditions.

Governance and University Community: TUM intends to motivate its students and members of the university community to actively participate by strategically anchoring the Sustainability Strategy at the General Management level and by implementing open, participatory decision-making processes.

Communication and Global Engagement: TUM intends to create an even greater societal awareness of sustainability with transparent and self-critical communication and to take on a proactive role in the transformation process. To this ends, the university combines its research and teaching agenda with entrepreneurial drive in the fight against climate change and pollution, poverty and inequality as well as against the lack of access to proper health care and education.

With the its Sustainable Futures Strategy 2030, TUM is making the university an innovative place for sustainable transformation – on its campuses and beyond.

“We intend to secure the resilience of our university and shape the sustainable transformation of society with responsibility, talented individuals, scientific excellence and innovative power. We are making TUM a catalyst for the tremendous changes inevitably emerging in our pursuit of sustainable development, taking ecological limitations, economic constancy and social justice into account.” – TUM President Thomas F. Hofmann

Photo copyright: Andreas Heddergott /TUM