Technical University of Denmark: Engineers of tomorrow have learned to think sustainability

This year, DTU received 7,402 applications from young people wanting to be admitted to one of our study programmes. 2,386 of them have just started their studies, and—in a couple of years—the majority will have graduated as engineers and will help make a difference in society in their future jobs. As an important part of their education, they will all be able to relate to sustainability.

Sustainability is already a basic element in all DTU’s study programmes. This will be formalized further this year with the introduction of a charter under which students have to consider sustainability in all the project assignments and products that they work on. DTU’s students will experience that the knowledge they acquire in their studies will provide them with new opportunities to act and take active part in the green transition.

It is clearer than ever that new solutions are needed in areas such as welfare, health, energy, and the environment that can contribute to a sustainable development.

Thinking about the next generation

“It is clearer than ever that new solutions are needed in areas such as welfare, health, energy, and the environment that can contribute to a sustainable development.”
Lars Christoffersen
DTU has an ambition to offer Europe’s best engineering education. One element in this is that our students learn to relate to and work with sustainable technologies for the benefit of people and society.

Our commitment to sustainability is based on an objective to meet current human needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It is a big, but necessary, responsibility that we want to inspire all students and graduate engineers to feel towards society.

One measure taken to achieve this is that—each year—we focus on sustainability, environment, and climate technology in all our study programmes through the Green Challenge initiative. Here, the students have a unique opportunity to present a green project that has formed part of their studies and to compete on having the best sustainable project.

DTU also has a number of interdisciplinary student projects called Blue Dot Projects which convert theoretical knowledge into practice. For example, the students can work with the eco-car—which can drive over 429 kilometres per litre—a sustainable brewery, robots, or synthetic biology as a solution in energy, environment, food products, and medicine.

A living lab

I experience that many young people want to contribute to making the world a better place and want to be part of a community that actively takes a stand on sustainability in education, research, and in the way we build and organize our University. Therefore, we also have campuses that function as living laboratories for sustainability and sustainable behaviour.

All new students will automatically become part of this Living Lab, which focuses on biodiversity, human diversity, waste sorting, recycling, use of green energy, and utilization of data from consumption of resources.

So to all our new students: Welcome to a University that thinks in terms of sustainability for the benefit of the planet and future generations.