Introduction

City centre campus park in summer, trees and a road going in the middle. There's a cyclist in the distance.
Photo: Warunee Heinämäki / Tampere University

Dear reader,
You are currently reading the second Sustainable Development Report of Tampere University which brings together the sustainability actions and changes in ways of operation done in our community in 2021 and 2022. We have collected information on our university’s social, cultural, ecological, and economic sustainability actions done in our different faculties, student associations, and support services. As the framework for the report, we have decided to use the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

With the report, we want to point out how diversely the members of our community – students, teachers, researchers, and the support services staff – work towards the goal of a sustainable world. During the time of a climate crisis, it is easy to get stuck in the negativity, but with this report, we aim to bring some hope: an enormous amount of work is already being done to further sustainability and responsibility! Often the knowledge of on-going actions stay within a small group of people, so it is our pleasure to bring forward new paths, projects, and actions with this report. Our contribution to SDG goals also supports our success in university rankings such as THE Impact Ranking.

Examples of the university's sustainable actions in 2021-2022: 60 research projects, 15 training events, 18 collaborative projects and 5 changes in ways of operation

Perhaps the best news is that this is not everything! On one hand, a lot of research, education, and societal work is constantly done in different corners of our community, and this report barely scratches the surface of them all. On the other hand, a lot of activity and development toward sustainability is happening in our everyday lives: occasionally we don’t even remember to tell about the advancements that seem so small and insignificant. You can read about the Tampere Universities community’s sustainable everyday choices from the community’s web page.

Creating a report like this is always full of choices: the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals are not the perfect framework, and connecting the actions with a singular SDG goal is often nearly impossible. However, simplifications like these often support building a sort of unified conception of sustainability: to many of the members of our community, the goals and discussion around sustainability matters aren’t yet familiar, and so, we must learn to walk together before we can start running together. Read more about the choices we made from the Reporting Principles page.

SDG distribution of actions in 2021-2022

We hope that this report provides you with new information and insights, and perhaps even leads you to the realisation that your work could be showcased in this report as well. Are you involved or aware of the research, teaching, or other operations underway within our community that could have been included in this report? Please let us know by filling out this form.

We authors want to thank all the members of our community who contributed to this report by sending us information on their sustainability actions! Please do note that our students have had a remarkable contribution to this report as well: master’s student Hana Nguyenová has developed our report as part of the Sustainable Digital Life Master’s Programme, and Teija Ruoho, an intern specialized in sustainable development communications, has been responsible for compiling the 2021-2022 report.

We would also like to sincerely thank our entire community that creating this kind of report is even possible: it shows that you are already working towards a sustainable future, regardless of whether your work is showcased in this report or not. And now, dear reader, welcome to take a look at what we have achieved in 2021 and 2022 to build a more sustainable world.

Hopeful for the future,

Senior Specialist, Sustainable Development Matias Nurminen and Intern Teija Ruoho