Sustainability Week 2021

Monday's event was hosted in collaboration with the Zurich Theoretical Physics Colloquium and attracted almost 200 participants.

Abstract: The 20th century was the century of physics. What about the 21st? Though progress on some old problems is frustratingly slow, exciting new questions are emerging in condensed matter physics, nonequilibrium thermodynamics and other fields. And most of all, the 21st century is the dawn of the Anthropocene, in which we will adapt to the realities of life on a finite-sized planet. How can physicists help here?

Speaker: Prof. John Baez (University of California, Riverside, USA)
Hosts: Niklas Beisert (ITP, ETH), Anna Knörr (SSC-VSETH)

Video: https://share.phys.ethz.ch/~lecture/TPC/20210308_Baez.mp4

Core idea: What to do if a problem feels too big to digest? Break it down! On Tuesday over 30 members of D-PHYS came together to split the Download comprehensive D-PHYS CO2 document (PDF, 510 KB) up into smaller sections and assign concrete tasks to teams. Indeed, team spirit is the key word! Here’s an overview of what D-PHYS members of all ages are working on in FS21.

The VC & Travel Team is deepening cooperation between D-PHYS and the ETH Air Travel Project, led by Susann Görlinger. Several initiatives have been launched to ensure D-PHYS continues on its travel-related CO₂ reduction path after COVID without harming scientific exchange. To this end, we are working on:

• Flight data tracker on the D-PHYS homepage (Nicole Kalas)
• ETHIS flight data tool in D-PHYS research groups (Nicole Kalas)
• Physical art installation “Stolpersteine” on Hönggerberg campus (Hans-Arno Synal)
  
• Creating attractive and reliable hybrid talk and conference formats for post-Corona exchange (Susann Görlinger, Anna Knörr)
  
• Integrating VC facilities in future HPQ building (Janis Lütolf)
  
• Raising student awareness, e.g. via flight data stats in VAMP magazine (Daniel Wetterwald, Chrysander Hagen)

The Operational Emissions Team is currently in a phase of data gathering. For more information, please contact Thomas Bähler.

Within the Education Team, we will focus on getting several existing projects running smoothly and consolidate these achievements in a paper to be submitted to the ICED conference on Sustainable Education in October 2021. Projects include:

• Deepening IAC (ETH Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science) / D-PHYS cooperation, e.g. by making more IAC courses creditable for physics students and supervising more thesis / semester projects (Hanna Joos)
• Generating a question bank that includes sustainability-themed exercises within the “Engaging Physics Tutoring Program” (Vira Bondar)
• Addressing the challenge of teaching sustainability in D-PHYS Lehrdiplom didatics courses (Guillaume Schiltz)
• Establishing a university / high school students “Climate Exploration Day” (Aldo Antognini)
  

Our Outreach Team will support all above team by communicating our efforts to students and staff.

For further material, please click here.

Abstract: Sustainable energy is an urgent challenge towards a future carbon neutral society. Breakthroughs in energy conversion, energy storage and transport and efficient energy use are necessary for a global energy transition. Solar energy and especially photovoltaics (PV) will become a key technological pillar for the future energy supply. Despite the significant progress made in lowering the electricity generation costs during the past decades, an increase of the power conversion efficiency of PV provides the most important leverage for reducing costs and thus enabling a sustainable energy system by further electrification of sectors and the production of “green” hydrogen.
In this talk I will discuss and highlight the important role of physics and connected materials science for a future sustainable energy system.

Speaker: Prof. Bernd Rech (Scientific Director, Helmholtz Zentrum, Berlin)
Host: Petia Arabadjieva (Physics BSc, ETH)

Video: tba.

This appetizer talk was followed by 10 minutes of condensed information on the ETH Specialized Master in Energy Science and Technology with Dr. Christian Schaffner and 20 minute break-out sessions in which you the participants chatted informally with MEST students.

Abstract: Research on the physics of the atmosphere has due to the atmosphere’s inherently nonlinear and chaotic nature fundamentally transformed our world view. As a computational problem, global weather (and climate) prediction is comparable to the simulation of the human brain and of the evolution of the early Universe. Complex problems in the climate system cannot be understood by one discipline alone.
I give a brief overview on the research in our institute and department, the problem of deterministic chaos and how it challenges numerical weather forecasting, followed by insight into how afforestation and deforestation would change the global circulation.

Speaker: Prof. Sebastian Schemm (IAC, ETH Zurich)
Host: Jan Zibell (Physics MSc, ETH)

Video: tba.

This appetizer talk was followed by 10 minutes of condensed information on the ETH Specialized Master Atmospheric and Climate Science with Dr. Hanna Joos and 20 minute break-out sessions in which the participants chatted informally with A&C students

Note: This discussion was postponed to 15 April 2021, 17:00. Please save the date; details will follow.

Abstract: NettoNull, NettoNull… our emissions are still plenty-full! This event is designed to let a simple fact sink in: the aim of NettoNull is not an abstract notion but applies to our universities, too. How do we get there? The structural backbone of this event is a selection from the VSS Master Demands Paper, including topics such as flight reduction, real estate, IT infrastructure and more. We will also highlight best practice examples from our peer universities UBern and EPFL: setting ambitious goals and ensuring their success by growing roots in the university structure!

Student Speakers: Anna Knörr (SSC, ETH), Sebastian Held (SUB, UBern), Léo Gilliard (WWF)
Staff Speakers: Susann Görlinger (Mobility Platform, ETH), Dominik Brem (Real Estate, ETH), Armin Brunner (IT Services, ETH)

Zoom: tba.