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. 

The Climate Change Collaboratory (Triple-C) is a two-year research project funded within the Austrian Climate Research Program (ACRP). The introductory expert workshop and public symposium entitled “Climate Change Communication and Collaboration: Translating Awareness into Collective Action” took place on June 16th, 2010 at MODUL University Vienna. Photos of the event as well as the slides of the keynote speakers (see short biographies below) are now available for download:

• David D. Herring, Communications Program Director, U.S. Department of Commerce, NOAA Climate Program Office
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• Prof. Dr. Helga Kromp-Kolb, Head of the Institute of Meteorology, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences
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• Prof. DDr. Arno Scharl, Vice President and Head of Department, MODUL University Vienna, Department of New Media Technology
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• Dr. David Stainforth, Senior Research Fellow, London School of Economics, Grantham Research Institute
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• Moderator: Thomas E. Bowman, MA, President of the Bowman Design Group and Founder of the Climate Solutions Project
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Prof. Dagmar Lund-Durlacher of MODUL University served as chair of the jury when this year's EDEN award was given to the Seelentium recreation area, a region located south-east of the Inn river. EDEN stands for European Destinations of Excellence, and is a project promoting sustainable tourism development models across the European Union.

Vienna, 06 May 2010 – As of now Fujitsu and MODUL University Vienna will be working alongside each other towards sustainability and effective environmental protection. The goal of this collaboration is to combine management and IT knowledge with research insights to incorporate Green IT into state-of-the-art university education. This information will not only be conveyed in the MBA in New Media Technology and Management program that is currently offered, but also in a forthcoming environmental Master of Science" (MSc) program already under accreditation.

On 27 November 2009, Ben Sherman, member of the Oglala Lakota Indian Nation and a national leader in the development of American Indian tourism efforts in the United States gave a guest presentation on “Universal Tourism Values from a Native Perspective” at MODUL University within the guest lecture series Latest Trends and Innovations in Tourism.

MODUL University Vienna (MU) has recently become a new member of The International Ecotourism Society (TIES).

TIES promotes ecotourism, which is defined as "responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people,"

Ms. Wei Shi, student of the MU Vienna MBA in Tourism Management program, was selected as the winner of the Scholarship of Hope 2009. She has been selected at the discretion by the Committee for the Scholarship of Hope which acts as a reviewing body of students' project proposals.

Welcome to the new issue of our newsletter. As usual, each of the four points of the issue introduces an aspect of the sustainability concept. The first point covers the upcoming conference to be held in Vienna on methods of food production, environment and health. The second point shows how the economic crisis is lived by ordinary Canadian citizens and finally, points three and four consist of tips and links to websites of interest. Any comments or suggestions can be e-mailed to Xavier Matteucci (newsletter.contact@modul.ac.at).

Prof. Dagmar Lund-Durlacher and Anja Hergesell participated in this year’s BEST EN Think Tank on „The Importance of Values in Sustainable Tourism“. The four day conference (June 15-18) took place on the Singapore campus of James Cook University and featured keynote speeches, research presentations and break-out sessions devoted to the development of an online wiki on the conference theme. Dagmar and Anja presented the research findings of a study on the female workforce in the Austrian hospitality market.

From June 30 until July 1, 2009, Anja Hergesell represented MU Vienna at the first conference on European Universities for a sustainable and competitive tourism.