How the University of Auckland is creating a sustainable future

This year, the University of Auckland refreshed its Graduate Profile, which is a critical foundational statement that captures the university’s aspirations for its students. Sustainability is one of the key capabilities that the university seeks to foster in the refreshed Graduate Profile.  

We want our graduates to appreciate that they are interdependent with the natural world, and to recognise their responsibilities to contribute to the protection, conservation, and regeneration of regional and global ecosystems, communities, and economies.  

To support this aspiration, a Curriculum Framework Transformation Programme is underway. One of its key objectives is to integrate sustainability as a key component and principle across the university’s programme offerings and maximise the curriculum’s capacity to contribute to social betterment, in particular to forging just and sustainable societies.  

The university has also been actively involved in initiatives that enhance students’ sustainability awareness and skills. One such initiative is Future17, a global collaborative programme that brings together students and industry partners from around the world to work on interdisciplinary projects related to the 17 SDGs.  

Another example is the university’s Climate Action Virtual Internship (CAVI) programme which matches students for internships with NGOs working to respond to climate change. 

The most effective way to understand the challenges we face is to think in terms of systems and connections.  

Embedding the principles of sustainability and net zero carbon in a way that aligns with limiting global warming to 1.5˚C above pre-industrial levels means that every part of the organisation needs to look at their instruments, processes, mechanisms, and connections and identify how changes that happen in one place will result in something happening elsewhere.  

While organisations are experienced in applying systems thinking in several areas, such as finance or production lines, systems thinking for sustainability is not so common.  

If we consider how our external partners and suppliers are also part of the journey, this adds another level of complexity to the systems approach. It is a laborious but rewarding task that is full of opportunities.  

Sustainability is about people and place. We need to enable a community of people with a strong sense of place who are empowered to work cleverly by making the ‘nodes’ of the system visible and fostering collective action and creative changes.  

The university celebrates every contribution its students and staff make towards making the world a better place. Our SDG Report series is an important vehicle for such celebration and recognition. It provides an overview and a reflection on what the university has collectively achieved as a community, where the sum is greater than the parts.