MU wins Sustainability Award

MU added another success story to its growing list of achievements. On Monday, April 23rd, MODUL University Vienna received the Sustainability Award 2012 in the category of Structural Foundation for the programs ‘’MU Cares’’, ’’Scholarship of Hope’’, and ‘’Employee Sustainability Award’’.

Organized by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management, and the Ministry of Science and Research, the third annual competition recognized excellence and innovation in the area of sustainability. The competition is open to all public universities, colleges, accredited private universities and colleges of education in Austria.

MU’s successful winning proposal highlighted our three initiatives to actively engage Modulians at all levels of the university. The Scholarship of Hope and MU Cares are student-directed programs to inspire both thought and action in environmental, economic, and social sustainability, while the employee award encourages faculty and staff to consider these concepts to improve their working environment and make an MU an even better place to study.

The submission highlighted a three-fold effort: ‘’Ever since MODUL University Vienna opened its doors sustainability has been one of the fundamental credos for all its stakeholders. One initiative to embrace this principle is the Scholarship of Hope, which is meant to encourage students to promote sustainability by presenting innovative and creative ideas that could be implemented at MU. Parallel to the student scholarship, MU has also initiated an Employee Sustainability Award to recognize MU employees who submit ideas to improve the overall sustainability of the university. Winners of both awards receive attractive prizes and their ideas are published on the university homepage. Moreover, MU is also actively involved in providing students opportunities for extracurricular activities, a commitment which led to the launch of the “MU Cares” community program. Students and staff are engaged in several external charity initiatives and volunteer work, thereby creating ambassadors of responsible living. ‘’

The award itself, designed by students from the University of Applied Arts, was presented to our representatives (as pictured l-r) Prof. Dr. Karl Wöber, Dr. Sabine Sedlacek, MA Anja Hergesell, Mag. Gertraud Moser, by Dr. Franz Fischler, former EU Agriculture Commissioner and President of the Austrian Think Tank “Ecosocial Forum“. 

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Sustainability has been a core value of MU since inception, and is visibly engaged in the environmental component; for example, the solar panels catching sunlight on the university roof. However this is not the only way the university strives for full-circle exchange. 

Student Service Center representative, MU Cares coordinator and Sustainability Committee member Jesse Alexander spoke about the benefits of the sometimes overlooked aspect of social sustainability, which MU Cares actively encourages. ‘’The program creates a socially sustainable, healthy environment leading to community building, education of the whole person, developing leadership skills and personal growth.’’

Not only does the positive atmosphere contribute to enhancing the social environment on campus, the program brings students into the city to work with charities such as Grenzenlos and Gruft. 

In addition to the trophy winning submission, MU was also awarded third place for our international cooperation with Tourism Education Futures Initiative (TEFI). Special congratulations to Gertraud Moser for drafting the structural foundations proposal, to Dagmar Lund-Durlacher for the international cooperation proposal, and to Anja Hergesell and Jesse Alexander for editing!