The Rector, Xavier Gil, recently signed the UIC Barcelona Commitment to Sustainability Policies in the Board Room. He did so along with the Director for Sustainability, Sílvia Albareda, and the University’s Sustainability Committee. The signature took place within the framework of the anniversary of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which was adopted on 25 September last year, which includes the three dimensions of sustainable development: economics, society and the environment.
The commitment includes the fact that UIC Barcelona aims to “search for, disseminate and apply ethical alternatives to the socio-economic and environmental challenges that society today, and by extension the university, have to face.” It underlines the fact that it supports the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and, therefore, UIC Barcelona is committed to developing a Strategic Sustainability Plan in the organisational, teaching and research and environmental management areas in our institution, to transform our campus in terms of sustainability.
The objectives set out by the university within this context are to promote sustainable development at a global level, to move towards overall sustainability at UIC Barcelona (through effective and consistent coordination between the organisational, teaching and research and environmental management areas) and take responsibility for the fact that the measures to reduce environmental contradictions not only depend on technical or scientific solutions, but also essentially on ethical values and attitudes that inspire a change in habits.
As is stated in the commitment, according to the Spanish Rectors Conference (CRUE) “sustainability is a concept that includes the search for environmental quality, social justice and an equitable and viable economy in the long term. It defines a group of criteria oriented towards ethical behaviour with everything that surrounds us (resources, people, spaces...), in such a way that it allows us to achieve intergenerational and intragenerational equity, as well as manage relationships with the natural and social environment, thus promoting a more equitable and fair distribution of the resources, benefits and environmental costs. When we talk about sustainability we are talking about an ethical imperative linked to the protection of the natural environment, the reduction of poverty, gender equality, the promotion of good health, human rights, cultural comprehension and peace, responsible production and consumption, and equal access to ICTs, etc.”
The commitment means that, as a university “we are aware of the fact that in universities we have a great responsibility as far as training future professionals is concerned, in terms of aiming our research and the generation of knowledge towards the common good”.
Through this commitment, signed by the Rector, the educational community in the entire university community is committed to doing everything possible to promote and apply sustainable values and habits in all the various areas of university life.
