Members of the University of Lodz Climate and Environmental Policy Council
The Council was established by the Regulation No. 78 of the Rector of the University of Lodz of 16 January 2025. It plays an advisory role at the University of Lodz. The purpose of the Council is to develop good practices in response to contemporary environmental and climate challenges. The council's activities are closely related to the implementation of the principles of sustainable development at our university.
The University of Lodz Climate and Environmental Policy Council is composed of representatives of the university’s faculties, environmental and climate experts, representatives of the university's organisational units and representatives of the University Students' and Government Council and the University Doctoral Students’ Government Council.
At the first meeting of the council, the meeting participants were welcomed by its President, Prof. Tomasz Jurczak (Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection). In a short presentation, he presented the history of the council's activities since November 2019, when a letter from the academic community of the University of Lodz with a request to establish an Advisory Team for Climate Policy at our university was sent to the then Rector of the University of Lodz, Prof. Antoni Różalski.
He also recalled the most important recommendations of the team for the University of Lodz related to climate protection (the university's green space inventory, rainwater retention, facade gardens and "beehives on the rooftops of the University of Lodz Library") and the significant contribution of activists – team members in reporting for the first time on the university's activities towards the Sustainable Development Goals for the Times Higher Education Impact Ranking in 2022. Prof. Jurczak thanked everyone involved in the work of the team so far, which has now, by the Rector's Regulation, become the Climate and Environmental Policy Council of the University of Lodz.
Prof. Rafał Matera, Rector of the University of Lodz, who was present at the meeting, underlined that the role of the council is, among other things, to raise awareness of the threats posed by climate change related to global warming, but also to create and recommend to the Rector’s Board solutions, sometimes small ones – even concerning a single tree, which in any way contribute to reversing these trends that are dangerous to us and future generations.
The University of Lodz Climate and Environmental Policy Council is also to ensure that the University of Lodz as a university reaches a higher level in terms of implementing the sustainable development assumptions and understanding the tasks that the challenges of modern times pose to us. Therefore, thank you for being here
– said Prof. Rafał Matera to the members of the Council.
Next, members of the Climate and Environmental Policy Council learned about the legal rules governing its operation. Dorota Kudlicka from the University's Centre for External Relations and Social Responsibility of the University presented the assumptions and results of the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings. The scope of the council's work in the term 2025-2028 was discussed by Prof. dr hab Tomasz Jurczak, Dr Agnieszka Rzeńca and dr hab. Dominik Drzazga.
Source and edit: Press Office, University of Lodz
Photo: Maciej Andrzejewski (Centre for Brand Communications, University of Lodz)