CDE is Switzerland’s centre of excellence for sustainable development. One of the University of Bern’s strategic research centres, we are tasked with mainstreaming sustainability throughout the university’s research and teaching.
We conduct research and teaching on behalf of a more sustainable world. Our aim is to chart pathways to sustainable development and to initiate transformations in line with the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
In our strategy, we show how we are committed to implementing the 2030 Agenda through our theory of change. We combine sound research with inter- and transdisciplinary approaches to analysis and transformation. Our research agenda is created within long-standing partnerships spanning the global North and South.
How does climate policy work? Young people are particularly affected by it, but they often feel overwhelmed by the complexity of the issues and political processes involved. In April, we visited Gymnasium Lerbermatt in Köniz and worked with students to change this. Politicians from Bern also joined in. (Report in German)
Indigenous peoples manage and care for over one quarter of Earth’s land surface. Yet their perspectives remain insufficiently accounted for in debates on conservation of biodiversity and cultural landscapes. Affording this knowledge equal space is the goal of the Congress of the International Society of Ethnobiology (ISE). According to CDE researcher and ISE President Sarah-Lan Mathez-Stiefel, “this knowledge can make vital contributions to addressing our current planetary crises”.
Interview
CDE is launching a new study programme. This cutting-edge MSc seeks to train students to become sustainability specialists. Students will be equipped to critically analyse sustainability issues in interconnected dimensions and develop comprehensive practical solutions at local, national, and international levels. The programme starts in the autumn semester of 2024. Apply now!
Studies
Watch video
Illicit financial flows (IFFs) erode the tax base of low and middle-income countries. For commodity-dependent countries, trade mispricing is a major problem that prevents them from benefitting fairly from the sale of their natural resources. Against this backdrop researchers from Switzerland, Ghana, and Laos – among them CDE scientists – engaged in a six-year research to study the IFFs associated with commodity trade mispricing and tax evasion. The Ghanaian filmmaker Fiifi Koomsom retraces this research collaboration in the documentary “Missing Dollars”.
What’s the impact of reduced working hours on hospital employees? A study by CDE researchers suggests that reducing working hours can be an effective way of at least partially easing the burden on staff and improving working conditions, thus addressing the shortage of skilled labour. (Read more in German)
CDE Working paper (in German)
06. June 2024
18:30
Museum Franz Gertsch, Burgdorf
The European Union (EU) plans to eradicate forced labour from supply chains feeding into its market. This is expected to have also substantial implications for Swiss businesses and their suppliers. Our new project aims to create a knowledge base for the dialogue in Switzerland on the new EU regulation.
Pressures on landscapes driven by soaring global consumption call for innovative solutions to enable sustainability. Many consumption-related harms are especially acute in countries of the global South where commodities are produced. Businesses – especially multinational companies – have major potential to enable more sustainable use of corresponding landscapes. This policy brief highlights the promise and challenges of landscape approaches involving the private sector and how to improve them.
CDE Policy brief
The prices of food we see on supermarket shelves rarely reflect the real costs to the environment or human health. This is because the real costs of cheap food are “externalised”. In this new project, CDE and its partners are exploring how best to implement true cost accounting in Switzerland for a more sustainable food system.
New research project
Mittelstrasse 43 3012 Bern
Phone: +41 31 684 88 22 info.cde@unibe.ch