From ideas to impact: how the SIP promotes sustainability

The Sustainable Impact Programme (SIP) is the ZHAW’s central support programme for sustainable projects, culture and community. It supports students and staff from the initial idea right through to implementation and fosters interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaboration across School boundaries. Since its foundation, the SIP has allocated more than CHF 1.6 million in project funding.

Four funding schemes, one shared goal

The SIP brings together several funding opportunities, each with a different focus. Through the Student Project Fund, students can receive up to CHF 10,000 for their own sustainability projects. The SDG Thesis Award recognises theses with a sustainability focus through prizes totalling CHF 4,500, presented at the Swiss Green Economy Symposium.

For staff, the SIP supports so-called living labs: real-world experimental spaces in which researchers, societal stakeholders and industry partners work together to develop solutions. Up to CHF 200,000 per year is available through the Living Lab Fund for this purpose. The programme is complemented by the low-threshold Instant Impact Fund: up to CHF 2,000 for small-scale initiatives with the potential to have an immediate impact on everyday university life – available through continuous submission with no formal project call.

Those wishing to pursue entrepreneurial ambitions can access a dedicated funding scheme through Impact Entrepreneurship: Sustainability Safaris introduce participants to inspiring sustainable start-ups, while the Sustainability Booster guides those interested through workshops, coaching sessions and a pitching event, helping them develop an initial idea into a viable business model.

What the numbers reveal

By the end of 2025, 92 projects had received funding and 1,470 participants had been recorded across all programme areas and Schools, including 912 in Impact Entrepreneurship alone. Around a third of all projects involve multiple Schools, and six out of ten projects are carried out in collaboration with external industry partners.

One finding is particularly revealing: more than half of all documented learning outcomes are process-related. This confirms that the SIP is not only about results, but also about the experience itself, specifically about collaborating across disciplinary boundaries and researching complex sustainability issues under real-world conditions.

Three projects that demonstrate what is possible

For her Bachelor’s thesis as part of her BSc in Natural Resource Sciences, Selina Pfäffli travelled to the Mekong Delta in Vietnam to investigate how plastic waste is transported from the Can Tho River into the South China Sea. The field study provides valuable insights into one of Southeast Asia’s major environmental challenges and demonstrates how a student project can engage directly with global environmental issues.

At the Toni Areal campus, an ordinary classroom was transformed into a "green classroom”: through a participatory process, a research team redesigned the space using biophilic elements, including natural materials, greenery and improved acoustics. Compared with a conventional classroom, the results were clear: students’ well-being and attentiveness improved significantly. The living lab project is providing fresh impetus for the design of learning environments.

And in the area of Impact Entrepreneurship, the SIP supports students and staff who wish to turn a sustainable idea into a business. Through Sustainability Safaris, participants get to meet successful, impact-driven start-ups in person. In the subsequent Sustainability Booster programme, targeted multi-stage coaching helps them to further develop and flesh out their own business ideas.

A platform for culture and community

Thanks to its wide reach and diverse range of programmes, the SIP has long since become more than just a funding scheme. It has evolved into the ZHAW’s central platform for fostering a culture and community of sustainability. From 2025 to 2026, the programme is also embedded as part of the Strengthening a Culture of Sustainability at Swiss Universities project, a national project-based funding (PgB) initiative that is coordinated by swissuniversities and co-funded by the Swiss federal government.