Summer university/Summer Academy, Sustainable future, 12 August- 23 August

The Summer University/Summer Academy focus on Sustainable future.

The concept of sustainability includes the three dimensions economy, environment and social aspects of human life. Given the ongoing global change, including climate change and increasing pressure on, and shortage of, natural resources, it is clear that we face challenges of how to build a long-term sustainable society. We will need to reconsider our energy use, resource efficiency, and reduce environmental pressure while maintaining good social interaction. This obviously includes economical challenges. Sustainability in general is a prerequisite for development but the costs and benefits are most often not shared by different actors.

The road to sustainability will influence all aspects of human enterprise, from natural resource use to individual life style. For a better understanding of this challenge a synthesis of different disciplines is required – some provide the motivation (e.g. ecology, environmental science, risk analyses) while others could be crucial to find solutions (technology, design, economics). This calls for multidisciplinary approaches – something that is rarely included in regular university studies focusing on a single discipline.