KAIST

The International Sustainable Campus Network (ISCN) and the Global University Leaders Forum (GULF) co-hosted a conference at the 2016 World Economic Forum held on January 20-23, 2016 in Davos, Switzerland, to present exemplary campus sustainability case studies provided by the world’s leading universities.

A total of 20 universities, including KAIST, Harvard University, University of Oxford, Yale University, the National University of Singapore, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Zurich), reported on their endeavors to demonstrate sustainable development in higher education in three different panels at the conference: Developing Skills and Building Capacities, Collaborating to Catalyze Change, and Innovating for Efficient Built Environments.

President Sung-Mo  Kang of KAIST gave a presentation on the Saudi Aramco-KAIST CO₂ Management Center as a sustainable development model for KAIST.

KAIST and Saudi Aramco, the world’s leading fossil-fuel provider, joined forces in 2013 to establish a joint research center on the reduction and management of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, a major driver of climate change.

The research center, located at the KAIST campus in Daejeon, South Korea, is currently sponsoring ten research projects involving more than 20 doctoral-level researchers and over 100 students.

The goal of the center is to develop materials for more energy-efficient CO₂  capture, catalysts and processes for converting CO₂  into valuable products, novel storage methods, and system-level analyses of major CO₂  emitting industries to suggest industry-specific CO₂ reduction strategies including energy efficiency improvement.

The center’s work also includes analyzing the impact of potential government or industry-wide policies in the face of uncertainties, some of which are technological and economic as well as political. Besides its research activities, the center has also sponsored seminars and workshops throughout the year to raise awareness of the importance of CO₂ management in building a sustainable future.

President Kang said that, from the beginning, the center has prompted researchers and students with different academic backgrounds and skill sets to work together to find integrative and systematic solutions to address real problems of critical importance to the world’s sustainability.

ISCN is a global non-profit association of leading colleges and universities representing over 20 countries, working together to holistically integrate sustainability into campus operations, research, and teaching. As of now, more 75 universities worldwide are the members of ISCN.

The GULF is composed of the presidents of the top 25 universities in the world. The World Economic Forum created it in 2006 to offer a non-competitive platform for high-level dialogue in academia. KAIST is the only Korean GULF member.

For the full report of the 2016 ISCN and GULF conference, go to http://www.international-sustainable-campus-network.org/downloads/general/441-2016-iscn-gulf-best-practice-report/file.