Sustainability as a Transversal Task: An Interdepartmental Collaboration

The Living Lab “Sustainability as a Transversal Task: An Interdepartmental Collaboration” aims not only to address sustainable development theoretically, but to integrate it practically and interdepartmentally into university teaching while linking it to applied research. The goal of this SIP project is to develop and pilot an interdisciplinary teaching module for students in Social Work, Architecture, and Environmental Sciences. Within the module, students from the three disciplines will work together on real-world challenges. In doing so, they experience first-hand that complex sustainability issues can only be addressed through the interplay of multiple perspectives, and they develop concrete solutions to practice-based problems in collaboration with practitioners.

The project generates impact on several levels:

• Within ZHAW, it establishes a model for how interdisciplinary teaching formats can be organised and implemented—despite existing hurdles such as differing timetables, credit systems, and module structures.
• For students, it creates a learning environment in which they can acquire practice-oriented competencies in sustainability, collaboration, and critical reflection—skills that are central to their future professional fields.
• For the university as a whole, the project provides a foundation for institutionally embedding an interdepartmental approach to sustainable development in teaching and applied research, with potential for scaling to additional departments.
• Beyond ZHAW, the project demonstrates how universities can create transformative learning environments. Through collaboration with local practice partners, students engage with real-world issues and feed jointly developed solutions directly back into practice. In this way, the Living Lab makes a substantial contribution to advancing applied and transdisciplinary sustainability education.