Student Organisation Insights: Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)
Meet Maximillian Forberg, a current STP MSc student minoring in Energy and Mobility who started in Autumn 2023. He previously completed his Bachelor of Physics at EPFL, as well as a Master of Physics at ETH. He will be continuing his studies this Autumn as a PhD student at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden where he will be doing research on carbon footprints of household consumption in Sweden/doing research in ecological economics!
What student organization are you a part of and what do they do?
I am a member of the Student Sustainability Committee (SSC), and we are the student association representing the interests of students regarding sustainability at ETH. I first joined the SSC in 2021 while in my Physics Master’s program, then through my engagement with the student committee completed an internship at the ETH Sustainability Office, and finally returned to the SSC last year when I started at the STP program.
The main project of the SSC is currently to help ETH become more sustainable in their operations and to more strongly incorporate sustainability into their teaching. The development team recently drafted the Vision 2030 white paper for the UN that outlines a sustainable ETH, which we managed to circulate around the ETH administration. We’re now in more direct contact with different units of ETH to bring forth the student’s voice on sustainability issues and work together with the administration.
The other main function we do is to organize events related to sustainability to raise awareness and inform people about different aspects of sustainability. Thus far it's been very much climate related. Last semester we mirrored the Climate of the Parties (COP) 28 with an event series running in parallel to the climate negotiations. At these events we discussed different aspects of climate and emission reduction while also showcasing what was happening at the at the COP.
What is your role in the committee?
I am currently the outreach coordinator meaning that I stay in touch with other organizations related to sustainability at ETH or outside ETH. This past year, I co-organised the ETH Sustainability Summit with the ETH sustainability office where we brought together around 30 sustainability associations from ETH. We provided an evening where they could present their current work to help gain publicity by giving them space to network and exchange ideas.
This past semester I worked with the ETH Sustainability office to organise the ETH Net Zero Day which is a big event to support the recently launched Net Zero program to reduce carbon emissions from their operations. The ETH Net Zero day was in May 2024 to showcase the program and host a project challenge where ETH students are invited to work on three challenges for emissions reduction where they can win prizes, with the hope that these projects are then further pursued and supported by the ETH administration and by SSC.
How did your involvement in the committee enhance your master's studies, and in what ways did your master's studies contribute to your effectiveness in the committee?
Being part of the SSC constantly engages me with different topics of sustainability, that are mainly climate and energy related. This aligns well with my topics of interest for my master studies.
I learn interesting things just by discussing with people about sustainability and their successes that I can then bring into my master studies. During my studies, I’ve learned interesting facts about the climate and energy transition that I’m able to bring back into discussions at the SSC. I’m also able to network with different professors and teachers here at ETH through my master’s studies which I can then invite to the SSC events.
What was the most rewarding aspect of being in the SSC?
It’s been really fun working with the other students of the committee, and we’ve become a great group of friends. It’s good to do extracurricular activities besides studies to meet great people from other study programs.
For the moment, this organization gives me the feeling to help create awareness for topics of sustainability and also to help ETH achieve this pathway to Net Zero to reduce their emissions, even if we can’t directly change the policies.
Has being a member of the committee allowed you to gain exposure to other projects?
Yes! By being part of the SSC, I was invited to join an ETH task force that is brainstorming methods to reduce emissions of flight travel at ETH as part of the big Net Zero project. The task force was organised by the sustainability office and was a great experience to work in a team with five professors where we drafted proposals on how to reduce emissions of flight travel at ETH. I had the opportunity to work on a task force with Tobi Schmidt of the ISTP and it really felt like we were working to change policy in this case.
It was great to be able to engage with other sustainability professors and the administration who do work in these fields to help develop connections for future potential collaborations!
