Nutrition, urban development and social justice – these are the federal government’s three priorities for sustainable development by 2030. Combining knowledge from all of the ZHAW’s Schools, the Vision 2030 MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) is based on these very priorities. For eight weeks, learners work individually or in groups for three to five hours per week on a combination of texts, images, videos, tasks, forum discussions and interactive lectures. The course is free and accessible to everybody.

Holistic thinking required

Project leader Nico Frommherz explained that they wanted to provide an overview of the complex system and show how Switzerland could achieve these key goals by 2030. According to Frommherz, holistic thinking that goes beyond individual fields of study is required to solve the major global problems. Experts from the fields of architecture, smart cities, energy and biodiversity have collaborated on the topic of sustainable urban development. The subchapter on food value chains covers a wide range of aspects, from land use and production to purchasing decisions and health. Meanwhile, the School of Social Work and the School of Applied Linguistics highlight the social dimension of sustainability, addressing the participation of disadvantaged groups such as undocumented migrants. The course can already be credited towards several ZHAW degree programmes and will soon also be translated into English.