sustainability

On December 9th, MODUL University Vienna hosted the closing event of the EC co-funded project Landscape of the Year – European Network for Competitive and Sustainable Tourism.

MU’s commitment to sustainability took another step forward last spring, becoming an official partner of klima:aktiv, Austria's initiative to spread ideas and methods for sustainability and corporate social responsibility.

Sustainability is a core principle of the study programs at MODUL University Vienna, and we annually award the Scholarship of Hope (SoH) to the students with the best ideas to implement sustainable measures here on our Mt. Kahlenberg campus.

MU lecturers and researchers Andreas Zins and Anja Hergesell recently participated in two conferences in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

In June of last year, Prof. Dr. Dagmar Lund-Durlacher took over as Chair of the BEST Education Network, which is an international consortium of educators committed to furthering the development and dissemination of knowledge in the field of sustainable tourism. One of the most important happenings within the network is the annual Think Tank, where new research is presented, sustainable tourism topics are addressed, and research and educational materials for use in undergraduate education are developed.

This will be the joint conference theme of the 7th Symposium on Consumer Psychology of Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure and the 2nd International Symposium on Sustainable Tourism Management.
MODUL University Vienna is proud to be sponsoring this event which will take place from 24 – 27 May, 2011 in Chiangmai, Thailand. Prof. Zins, current President of the co-organizing International Academy of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research and co-chair of the conference, has released an updated call for papers.
>> read more

Thomas E. Bowman, founder of the Climate Solutions Project and keynote speaker at a public symposium held at MODUL University Vienna in June 2010 (see the project page of the Climate Change Collaboratory), has co-authored a call to action published in today's edition of "Science".

The Danube Delta, the Lesachtal, the Lubusz country and the Slovak Karst – Aggtelek Karst have some things in common: They are European cross border regions with important natural heritages and each of them has been designated as ‘Landscape of the Year’ by the International Friends of Nature. Naturefriends International and MODUL University Vienna among others are partners in a project which aims at creating a network of these regions with a particular focus on tourism.

At the "Central Europe toward Sustainable Building" conference, which took place in Prague in June/July 2010, Sabine Sedlacek from the Department of Public Governance and Management presented two studies about the effectiveness of regional councils for sustainable building. Results from an online survey about governance aspects of sustainable building councils provide a valuable insight in their structures, their working processes and the role they play in regional governance settings. The question “Do green building councils make sense?” was subsequently assessed.

This year the annual Think Tank of the BEST Education Network was hosted at MODUL University Vienna. The BEST EN is an international consortium of educators committed to furthering the development and dissemination of knowledge in the field of sustainable tourism. At a BEST EN Think Tank, research is presented, sustainable tourism topics are addressed, and research and educational materials for use in undergraduate education are developed.