Column by Christine Nellemann, Dean of Sustainability, Diversity and International Cooperation at DTU. Published by the Technical University of Munich as part of the global discourse series “One Topic, One Loop“.
All research and teaching at DTU is focused on creating sustainable change.
This can involve developing new technologies to reduce the climate impact of agriculture. It can involve study activities that provide skills to develop green energy solutions of the future. Or it can involve innovative solutions enabling the phase-out of petrol and diesel vehicles in the transport sector.
As DTU’s newly appointed Dean of Sustainability, Diversity and International Cooperation, I therefore find the question posed by Alyssa Gilbert, Director of Innovation at Grantham Institute, highly relevant. She asks:
"How do others in the academic sector make sure their actions match their other activities?"
As an elite technical university driving sustainable change in society, it’s important to us that our campus also reflects this goal and inspires change. That’s why we make our facilities available as a living laboratory. This means that students, researchers and relevant stakeholders such as authorities and businesses can use DTU’s facilities to develop and test new sustainable technologies. For example, at DTU’s energy test center PowerLab, one can test everything from electric charging stations to control systems for future renewable energy systems. Meanwhile, on our Lyngby campus, we want to reduce the climate impact by installing a heat pump that can cover 30% of DTU’s annual heat demand and also function as a Living Lab for DTU students.
For us, allowing space for this kind of experimental innovation promotes sustainability as the driving force of the University. The aim is to motivate us within the University and inspire the surrounding society to follow suit. For us to succeed, however, we need to be transparent about what we mean when we say something is sustainable.
That’s why DTU has also set up the Centre for Absolute Sustainability, whose purpose is to help Danish and international societies achieve absolute sustainability. Absolute sustainability means using nature’s tolerance limits as a measure of how much we can allow our products and actions to impact the climate. The centre’s researchers collaborate with the business sector, and not only help develop concrete models for calculating the absolute sustainability of products, but also come up with technological solutions that can make a real difference to overall CO2 emissions.
Creating responsible infrastructure
The physical infrastructure on DTU’s campus is undergoing big changes. Currently, a light rail line is being constructed on our campus in Lyngby, which DTU has used as an opportunity to expand and improve the cycling infrastructure. In this context, DTU is making the campus available for testing shared electric bicycles, which will provide important insights to promote green mobility. The goal is to motivate more students and staff to leave their cars at home when commuting to DTU.
As a developer, DTU has also decided that all future construction must have sustainability as the leading principle. This means that all new building projects must consider environmental impact and inclusion.
A good example is DTU’s newly built pioneer centre for developing green power-to-x technologies. The Climate Challenge Laboratory, as the building is called, is constructed from cross-laminated timber, a renewable natural resource that requires much less energy to produce than concrete and steel. Architecturally, the centre has flexible labs that can be adapted to the researchers’ needs, while the furnishings primarily consist of reused furniture. In the middle is an open atrium rising up through the building’s seven floors, inviting social interaction.
This architectural approach, which integrates the social element into the building, goes hand in hand with a diversity experiment involving the centre’s users. The experiment, called Living Lab, is supported by the Villum Foundation and the Novo Nordisk Foundation and aims to promote diversity and inclusion in engineering by implementing concrete tools in daily life.
In my view, sustainability is about more than CO2 reductions. The concept also involves lowering the barrier to asking curious questions and creating diverse and creative work environments where equality between different people is the norm rather than the exception.
With that in mind, I will pass the baton to UPS Foundation Professor and Senior Fellow Sarah Billington from Stanford University. My question to Sarah Billington is:
How to create the most inclusive and creative environment at a technical university?
