About this report
This report is the first sustainability report of Bern University of Applied Sciences BFH. It was compiled in accordance with the GRI standards (Core option) and documents the calendar year 2021. The materiality analysis, which was developed in dialogue with representatives of various stakeholder groups, serves as the basis. The report summarises the essential information, key figures, activities and developments on sustainability within the eleven relevant topics and in the four fields of action ‘Research for a Sustainable Future’, ‘Education for Sustainable Development’, ‘Social Participation’ and ‘Sustainable Operations’.
The eleven relevant topics and the corresponding goals were approved by the Commission for Sustainable Development on 15 April 2021 for the attention of the UAS management. The latter approved the goals on 8 May 2021 and decided to supplement the BFH strategy with corresponding sustainability goals where necessary.
The sustainability report is intended to review the goals, measures and activities in the strategic thematic focus of sustainable development regularly and to make BFH's sustainability efforts in the four fields of action credibly visible both internally and externally.
The report and the objectives were prepared by the Sustainable Development Unit with the involvement of the responsible organisational units and persons and with external support from BHP - Brugger und Partner AG. Where available, GRI standards and indicators were assigned to the main topics. In the remaining cases, in-house indicators were proposed.
As this is a pilot report, there are still gaps in terms of data availability and quality. These will be continuously closed in the period leading up to the next sustainability report and in the course of establishing the strategic thematic field of sustainable development. In addition, relevant indicators with target values are to be defined for all topics in the coming sustainability reports. Due to the current data situation, this was not expediently possible for the present report.
In future, the BFH's sustainability report will be published every two years and document the two previous years.
The Swiss Federal Institute of Sport Magglingen (SFIVET) is not part of the BFH sustainability report, as it is institutionally and organisationally independent. The SFHSM is a university created by the Federal Act on the Promotion of Sport and Physical Activity (Sports Promotion Act, SR 415.01) and is part of the Federal Office of Sport FOSPO. The EHSM is therefore integrated into the reporting of the Federal Administration and not into that of BFH. If data nevertheless includes the EHSM (e.g. student numbers), this is clearly indicated.
The report was verified by the two Vice-President’s Offices for teaching and research, the departments for quality development, equal opportunities and open science, the real estate management and other BFH management staff. It was approved by the BFH Executive Board on 5 April 2022 and will be published in June 2022.
We are happy to receive your questions and suggestions regarding the first sustainability report.
