Environmental commitments

Uppsala Climate Protocol

The Uppsala Climate Protocol is a network where the members are companies, public agencies, universities and organisations that cooperate and inspire each other to reach Uppsala’s long-term environmental and climate objectives. SLU has been a member since 2012 and has committed to taking on climate challenges in different areas. Read more about the Uppsala Climate Protocol.

Watch the film clip What is Uppsala Climate Protocol? (English subtitles available)

The Climate Framework

The Climate Framework describes how higher education institutions can tackle climate change. The framework has been jointly set up by 36 universities. Based on the framework, each higher education institution drafts a concrete climate strategy with the aim to reach the 1.5-degree target by 2030. SLU signed the Climate Framework in 2019. Read more about the Climate Framework.

Higher educations' climate network

The climate network will benefit all higher education institutions in the country and aims to:

• make it easier for higher education institutions to fulfil their part of the Paris Agreement,
• strengthen collaboration, learning and exchanges between higher education institutions in the climate area with a particular focus on influencing the entire sector,
• catalyze new perspectives and ideas on how higher education institutions can contribute to the climate transition through research, education and collaboration, and through reduced climate footprint from the higher education institutions' own activities, and
• make good examples available to higher education institutions and other actors outside the higher education sector.

The Swedish higher education sector is large and includes just over 54,000 employees and just under 400,000 students. This means great opportunities to reach many and thus affect a large part of Sweden's government sector. The UN's global goals are important in the transition work and this project is strongly linked to several of the goals, not least goal number 7 "Sustainable energy for all" and number 13 "Combat climate change". Read more about the Higher educations' climate network.

Region Uppsala’s roadmap for a sustainable county

Each county in Sweden has an action plan to guide and help prioritise measures aimed at reaching the national environmental objectives. The action plans are drafted by the county administrative boards together with other stakeholders. The Uppsala County Administrative Board, in cooperation with the Uppsala County Environment and Climate Board, has opted for an environmental action plan through “Roadmap for a sustainable county”.

Each action plan contains prioritised measures for county actors within a thematic area, and each plan has a four-year implementation period with annual follow-ups. In 2019, SLU signed up to several agreements within the plan for reduced environmental impact (in Swedish), e.g. increase the production and use of recycled or renewable energy and non-fossil fuels. In 2020, the action plan for ecosystems and biodiversity was launched. Here, SLU signed up to several agreements (in Swedish), such as increased diversity in farming landscapes. iN 2022 SLU signed up to several agreements (in Swedish) within the action plan for water. The aim is to reduce water consumption, e.g. through knowledge building and inspiration linked to water as a resource and sustainable water planning. 

Read more about Uppsala's roadmap for a sustainable county.

REMM – Travel-free/digital meetings for public authorities

REMM started as an assignment from the Swedish government in 2011–2015. Since 2011, it is run by the Swedish Transport Administration; the agency has been tasked with coordinating the efforts of a group of selected public authorities. The objective is to increase the use of digital meetings at and between public authorities. SLU has been a REMM member since 2016. Read more about REMM.