The leadership of Mendel University in Brno has newly taken the helm of the Czech Rectors Conference Working Group on Sustainability. The group is now overseen by Jan Mareš, Rector of Mendel University (MENDELU), who serves as its guarantor. The secretary of the working group is Martin Klimánek, Vice-Rector for Strategy, Sustainability, and Purposeful Activities. The inaugural meeting of the working group took place on April 15–16, 2025, at the château in Křtiny. The aim of the meeting was to share experiences with sustainable development strategies, best practices, and approaches to communicating the topic of sustainability within higher education institutions.
The primary focus of the first session was to introduce each university in terms of their activities related to sustainable development. “Participants shared specific experiences with preparing sustainable development strategies and compiling sustainability reports. Other topics included best practices for implementing individual processes and engaging all stakeholders at universities, as well as securing available resources for funding green transitions and building a so-called sustainability mindset—reframing or transforming the overall approach to sustainability within higher education institutions,” explained Martin Klimánek, Vice-Rector for Strategy, Sustainability, and Purposeful Activities.
Universities can contribute to laying the foundation for a common ESG reporting framework in the field of tertiary education, advocate for university interests at the national level, and seek funding opportunities through joint projects. “We agreed that the key benefit of the working group should be sharing best practices, strengthening inter-institutional cooperation, and jointly promoting sustainability as a fundamental cross-cutting theme in both higher education and science. The discussion revealed a shared interest among universities in coordinating their approaches—for example, in collecting campus operations data for university rankings or integrating sustainability topics into teaching,” outlined Jan Mareš, Rector of MENDELU.
The appointment of the new guarantor and secretary of the Czech Rectors Conference Working Group on Sustainability was approved at the 178th plenary session of the Czech Rectors Conference in Třešť in December 2024. The working group currently consists of 19 members, representing 13 public, 2 state, and 3 private universities. The honorary guests of the meeting were Radka Wildová, Director General of the Higher Education, Science and Research Section at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MŠMT), and Libor Čapek, Vice-Chair of the Czech Rectors Conference for Creative Activities.