Urgency
Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions impact the global climate system significantly. Climate mitigation and climate adaptation are needed to keep the planet liveable in the long term. In the near future, also the TU Delft campus has to deal with extreme weather conditions that may cause droughts, flooding, heatwaves, and extreme wind conditions. The long dry periods will cause a depression of the water table, which may lead to land subsidence. It is important to act now, to avoid worse.
Climate University
Through science, engineering and design TU Delft vows to create impact for a better society. For a sustainable world, climate action is urgently needed. We believe that universities should pave the way for society to see, learn and adopt. Therefore, TU Delft declared to take climate action itself, appointing a sustainability coordinator, and founding the Climate Action Programme. Our Rector Magnificus, Tim van der Hagen, expressed his wish to make TU Delft the world’s climate university.
Our plan
The goal of TU Delft is to become carbon neutral, circular and climate adaptive by 2030, and to contribute to quality of life and expose excellence and sustainability on the campus. This is a formidable enterprise, dealing with everything done on and from the campus. The TU Delft campus itself should become a living lab for a sustainable built environment. To help reach this goal, TU Delft’s Executive Board appointed Andy van den Dobbelsteen as sustainability coordinator, supported by Deirdre van Gameren as sustainability researcher.
Organisation
Alongside a core team representing all faculties, service departments and students, Andy and Deirdre formed teams that focus on specific themes of the sustainable transition of TU Delft. The first half of 2021 these teams were dedicated to writing a draft sustainability action plan, which will be disseminated and discussed with the TU Delft community. It proposes structural organisational measures, projects and actions. After finalising and formalising the action plan, it will be executed in the years to come.
