UCT Sustainability and the SDGs 2022 - Magazine - Page 4
Leading research for
sustainable impact in Africa
and implement a campus-wide, integrated sustainable food
waste management system. While rankings are a just one of
the measures of the impact of our work, UCT’s emergence
in the top 2.5% of universities worldwide in the Quacquarelli
Symonds (QS) World University Sustainability Rankings 2025
re昀氀ects our community’s deep and unwavering commitment
to tackling the sustainability challenges of our time.
Professor Je昀昀 Murugan, Deputy Vice-Chancellor:
Research and Internationalisation
Collaborations as engines of change
We also recognise that transformative solutions emerge
through partnership. Our collaborations across academia,
civil society, government, industry and the community in
At UCT, we’re continuously exploring innovative ways to
collaboration necessary to secure a sustainable future and
which we are embedded ensure that our research continues
weave sustainability into the fabric of our collaborations,
the just development Africa and the world need.
to have real-world impact.
research, teaching and learning. As Africa’s leading university,
UCT’s commitment to accelerating the pace and scale of
Student voices and action are central to this mission.
we recognise that sustainability is both a scienti昀椀c and moral
delivering on the AU goals and SDGs is clearly demonstrated
Through initiatives like Khusela Ikamva, a living lab project
imperative, essential to safeguarding the future of our planet,
by the multi- and transdisciplinary academic enquiry our
where sustainability solutions are designed and tested on our
its people and the natural systems that sustain us all.
researchers are engaged in. Doing so in ways that unearth
campuses, students engaged in shaping the sustainability
novel academic and institutional tools of knowledge production.
culture of our university. Initiatives such as the “Flush and go
Importantly, leveraging the opportunities these bring.
or 昀氀ush and grow” display promote water and environmental
The world keeps changing in ways that compel universities
to grapple with their purpose and location in society if they
In 2024, UCT’s Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular
sustainability awareness across our campuses, encouraging
Medicine (IDM) became the 昀椀rst academic research
students to participate in shaping a water-sensitive campus
Connecting global goals to African priorities
institution in South Africa and across Africa to pursue the My
culture and behaviour.
With the 2030 horizon for the United Nations’ Sustainable
Green Lab Certi昀椀cation. Considered the international gold
This edition of the ‘UCT Sustainability and the SDGs’ report
Development Goals (SDGs) approaching, momentum
standard for laboratory sustainability good practices, this
is our way of sharing these efforts while accounting to the
toward achieving these goals is slowing amid competing
certi昀椀cate con昀椀rms the promotion of responsible research
university community and to society at large. In the pages
global crises. This reality stresses the need for action and
practices and reducing the carbon footprint of labs.
that follow, you will 昀椀nd stories that capture how UCT’s
are to continue driving societal change.
draws attention to why the SDGs and the African Union’s
As part of UCT’s mission to becoming a resource-ef昀椀cient
exceptionally talented researchers, students, academic and
(AU) Agenda 2063 are not parallel ambitions but are deeply
campus, the Centre for Bioprocess Engineering Research
professional administrative support staff, and partners are
interconnected blueprints for the same shared future.
(CeBER) developed a novel project that breaks down food
shaping a more sustainable and equitable future.
Sustainability challenges are, at their core, questions of
waste into an energy source. The purpose of this system is
While this report covers a large swathe of research,
and physical sciences, combined with the social compass
complexity, structure and scale. Addressing them demands
to use circular design thinking to produce renewable energy
innovation and knowledge translation at UCT, we recognise
and empathy of the humanities and social sciences, that will
nothing less than transdisciplinary research and multilateral
and bio-based products using food waste, and to develop
that no single discipline holds the key to solving complex
bring meaningful change.
8 - Sustainability and the SDGs 2024
global problems. It is the precision and rigour of the natural
Sustainability and the SDGs 2024 – 9
