... officially a student association / Verein. We began in 2013. We have an illustrious list of alumni.
Jump to any of the following sections to know more!
Who Are We?
We are the largest student sustainability association in Zurich.
We are an independent student association (Verein) called Sustainability Week Zurich / Nachhaltigkeitswoche Zürich (NHWZ). Although other Sustainability Weeks exist, we work independently.
We are funded by Zurich's five major universities UZH, ETH, PHZH, ZHAW and ZHdK. Official representatives of all these universities attend the General Assembly every year. All the students in these five universities having voting rights and are welcome to the General Assembly. (See our Constitution). The association is led by the Lead Team which works with many other students who collaborate, organise events, volunteer and help make our events possible.
We organise ❇️ the Nachhaltigkeitswoche Zürich / Sustainability Week Zurich, which has been organised every year since 2013. During this week, many events around the theme of the year take place in these universities. These range from games to panel discussions to PubQuizzes and any creative ways that help increase awareness and foster discussions on this theme. ❇️ We also organise other year-round events ranging from panel discussions to hikes to film screenings.
Why Join Us?
- A great place to meet like-minded students & make friends outside your university.
- An association which takes interest in your sustainability related ideas.
- A well-connected organisation to help you get more engaged with sustainability.
- A truly inter-university collaboration.
- Be part of the rich legacy (see our history below)
Latest Annual Report
Latest Program
Constitution
How Did We Start?
The Beginning
It all began in 2013 when students of University of Zurich (UZH) from the VSUZH's Nachhaltigkeitskommission (Sustainability Commission) came together to raise awareness of sustainability at their university. Right from the start, students from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) from [project21] Students for Sustainability (Sustainability Commission) supported the event series.
In the first year, over five days, 32 events were organised by 16 students. The second year, 49 students from the UZH and ETH Zurich jointly organised the 42 events of the Sustainability Week. Since the third year, students from the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), the School of Engineering (ZHAW) and the Zurich University of Teacher Education (PH Zurich) joined the organisiers team. It was a truly inter-university beginning, represent the five major universities in Zurich, which continues to this day.
News Coverage & Awards:
Wide press coverage was recieved by the NHWZ since the beginning as a driver of important discussions on sustainability in Zurich's university spaces. The work of the Nachhaltigkeitswoche has been widely covered in student journals and university pieces such as UZH News, PHZH News and ETH Polykum. It also received wide coverage from news outlets and magazines including Das Lamm, SRF, tsüri.ch, Limmattaler Zeitung, Aargauer Zeitung, Tages Anzeiger, NZZ Campus and Italian newspapers like Buongiorno Online.
Major international awards for sustainability on campuses were given to NHWZ over the years. In 2016, the Rosa Brown (UZH), Simon Liebi (ETH) und Lorenz Keysser (ETH) received an award from the International Sustainability Campus Network for their work for organising the Nachhaltigkeitswoche Zürich. In 2018, the GUPES Green Gown Awards, a collaboration between UNEP & EAUC also recognised the work of NHWZ as Highly Commended, with Al Gore sending a video message specifically for the opening of the NHWZ's Week.
Each year, the Sustainability Week has been thematic. Most events during the week were organised around a particular theme. This included a wide range over the years such as Short Termism in 2025 and Take Action in 2020. We decide on the theme of the year during our yearly fun NHWZ Weekend Retreat in October to the Youth Hostel (Jugendherberge) in Fällanden in Kanton Zürich. All interested students can join this for free.
Channels:
Currently Instagram, Whatsapp group and the website remain the most important communciation channels. The Verein's earlier presence is also included active YouTube presence with panel discussions and promovideos from 2016 onwards. For example, see a 2018 promo video with a cat and the 2019 one. In 2025, we migrated to our current website nhwz.ch and until then we were hosted at nachhaltigkeitswoche.ch , which we continue to have as a rich archive. Our logo changed to the new one in 2019.
Here are the full programs of the previous Sustainability Weeks / Nachhaltigkeitswochen Zürich. The posters are in the gallery below. All the way back to 2013!
(Written by Ashoka Vardhan Manchala, with input from Annuscha Wassmann-Tomura
(Written by Ashoka Vardhan Manchala, with input from Annuscha Wassmann-Tomura
Written on 29.09.25, last updated 11.05.26)
Previous Lead Teams / Kernteams / Core-Teams
We boast an illustrious list of alumni who have been passionate about sustainability from the very start. Many continue to work in other areas of sustainability & make us proud. Along with Lead Team, hundreds of other students contribute to make the Week happen. Many of these names are available by clicking on the links of the pictures.
Are you an alumnus? Join our Alumni Group Chat by emailing us!
2026
- 2026: Lead Team members: Marco Hoffmann, ETH (Programm), Javier Ordonez, UZH (Programm), Zoé Kugler, ZHdK (Marketing), Szonja Kéri, UZH (Marketing), Jan Mantsch, ETH (Marketing), Sophie Becker, ETH (Infrastruktur, Programm); Ronja Schürch, UZH (Programm); Ting Tang, UZH (Programm); Christiane Mayer, UZH (Programm, Marketing); Leah Michelsen, ZHAW (Programm, Marketing); Co-Presidents: Ana-Isabelle Leicht, PHZH (Co-Präsidentin, Programm, Kommunikation); Ashoka Vardhan Manchala, UZH (Co-Präsident, Gesamtkoordination,Marketing) & Jimmy Weber, UZHÐ (Co-Präsident, Infrastruktur, Kommunikation).
2025
- 2025 Lead Team: Marco Hoffmann (ETH), Javier Ordonez (UZHÐ), Lina Bitterlin (ETH), Zoé Kugler (ZHdK), Szonja Kéri (UZH), Ana-Isabelle Leicht (PHZH), Ashoka Vardhan Manchala (UZH), Jimmy Weber (UZHÐ), Jan Chmiel, President: Jan Mantsch (ETH); Annual Report 2025
2024
- 2024 Kernteam/ Core-team: Marco Hoffmann (ETH), Javier Ordonez (UZHÐ), Lina Bitterlin (ETH), Szonja Kéri (UZH), Ana-Isabelle Leicht (PHZH), Jimmy Weber (UZHÐ), Lukas Zink (ETH); Co-Presidents: Jan Mantsch (ETH) & Zoé Kugler (ZHdK)
2023
- 2023 Kernteam/Core-team: Rike Teuber (ETH), Jan Mantsch (ETH), Marco Hoffmann (ETH), President: Zoé Kugler (ZHdK)
2022
- 2022 Kernteam/Core-team: Javier Ordonez (UZH), Justine Duval (ETH), Luc Zufferey, Max Müller, Jasper Dekoninck, Lou Forestier, Anita Ni, Jon Went
2021
- 2021 Kernteam/Core-team: Jon Went und Mario Signer (Co-Präsidium) (Fully virtual NHWZ which also had an NHWZ Radio for the first time)
2020
- 2020 Kernteam/Core-team: Rike Teuber (Kommunikation), Mara Aeschlimann (Marketing), Luana Nava (Programm), Noemi Lang (Sekretariat), Ina Schelling (Mensa), Anita Ni (Hochschulpolitik)
2019
- 2019 Kernteam/Core-team: Lea Wenger (Infrastruktur), Jon Went (Programm), Philine Dudler (Marketing), Nayeli Paulin (Sekretariat), Lorenz Keysser, Anika Brunner (Hochschulpolitik), Sarah Käser (Marketing)
2018
- 2018 Kernteam/Core-team: Marcel Garate (Sekretariat), Anna Schaffter (Infrastruktur), Ephraim Bastante (Programm), Jenny Shepherd (Hochschulpolitik), Gaia Di Salvo (Marketing), Michèle Arnold (Kommunikation)
2017
- 2017 Kernteam/Core-team: Pascal Schneider (Sekretariat), Ole Müller (Infrastruktur), Anja Logo (Programm), Lorenz Keysser (Hochschulpolitik), Deborah Meili (Marketing), Orlando Scholz (Kommunikation)
2016
- 2016 Kernteam/Core-team: Giulia Fontana (Sekretariat), Irene Scheuss (Infrastruktur), Jonas Walther (Programm), Levin Koller (Hochschulpolitik), Rosa Brown (Marketing), Simon Liebi (Kommunikation)
2015
- 2015 VSUZH NKT, [project21]
2014
- 2014 Annuscha Wassmann (Gesamtkoordination, public relations), Tessa Consoli, Daniel Wüest , Jonas Walther, Michael Wicki, Martin Jucker, Saskia Läubli, Flora Märki, Manuel Müller, Selina Fehr, Cédric Künzli (Tagesteams); Daniel Wüest (UZH Standortkoordination), Simon Gredig, Simon Wahl (ETH Standortkoordination), Felix Hofmann (Finanzen) & others
2013
- 2013 VSUZH NKT: Ariane Albisser, Oriana Schällibaum, Andreas Scheuss, Annuscha Wassmann & others; [project21]: Mauro Bieg, Artemi Egorov, Samuel Leder & others