Wageningen University

Sustainability-oriented research and education for food systems transformation

Institution

Wageningen University

Region

Europe

COuntry

Netherlands

founding year

1876

student body

13678

Website

Institutional Approach

Wageningen University has won the title of the 'Most Sustainable University in the World' from 2016 to 2022, according to the GreenMetric ranking. They have embedded sustainability throughout all their themes in research and education, with a main institutional focus revolving around sustainable food, agriculture and biotechnology. Research and education is divided into six sustainability-oriented themes: Biodiversity, Climate change, Circular & Biobased Economy, Feeding the world, Nutrition & Health, and Artificial Intelligence. Strings of green offices embedded in each department collaborate and compete for initiatives to advance sustainability embedding at the departmental operational level. Considering educational embedding of sustainability, Wageningen has pioneered the EYE (Educating Yourself in Empowerment) for Sustainability learning tool, which facilitates students to execute a real-life project of their choice in sustainable development. A student-led initiative for Transformative Sustainability Education led to the development of an undergraduate minor track called "Sustainability-in-Action", which in addition to theoretical knowledge and practical skills around sustainability, guides students to question their values and attitudes and gain skills in stakeholder collaboration.

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