There are so many abbreviations around us: UZH, ETH, SBB, ASVZ and so on. 

But do you know of the following three abbreviations? 

1. NHWZ: Nachhaltigkeitswoche Zürich (Sustainability Week Zurich) (5 Universities)
2. SSC: Student Sustainability Committee (ETH Zurich)
3. NHK: Nachhaltigkeitskommission (Student Sustainability Commission of UZH)

You probably recognise them if you are interested in sustainability. But did you also know that they are friends? And that their friendship goes back 14 years?

In this piece, we hear from both SSC and NHK with whom we continue to team up for the upcoming 14th Sustainability Week Zurich next month. From our side at NHWZ, we chose to give the stage to an alumnus who co-initiated the very first Sustainability Week Zurich.

1. NHWZ

At NHWZ (Sustainability Week Zurich), we are very happy to stay in touch with our alumni, who are quite generous with their time and input. For this post, we spoke to Annuscha Wassmann-Tomura, who is now a volunteer coordinator at Public Eye. She co-initiated the very first Sustainability Week Zurich in 2013 with other students of NHK at the University of Zurich (UZH), and with the support of the students of the SSC at ETH Zurich. 

Let's hear from Annuscha about the beginnings:

"In 2013, sustainability hasn’t played a major role at the University of Zurich, neither on a university level nor on a student level. Within the VSUZH — that’s the student union —, a few students and I decided to change that. We were convinced that higher education institutions bear a major responsibility in the education of future decision-makers — us —, and that sustainability played a crucial role in it. So we founded the Student Sustainability Commission (NHK). We wanted to make an active contribution and be an inspiration for our university, and were looking for an initial project. We looked around the country to see what other students already have done. We found out that students at the University of Basel have organised sustainability days. We thought we can do more — and made a week out of it. And that’s how the idea of the Sustainability Week was born."

Annuscha also spoke about working with SSC: "Right from the start, we were collaborating with students at ETH Zurich from the Student Sustainability Committee (SSC). It made complete sense to us to work together, being such close neighbours. We wanted to go beyond the usual method of knowledge transfer we were so used to from academia. We wanted to engage with the “real world”, build bridges to society — all events were open to everyone free of charge.

At the very first Sustainability Week Zurich 2013, a committee of 4 students, supported by 12 students, after months of planning, organised 32 events at the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich — the best attended event attracted 200 people."

2. SSC

With SSC (Student Sustainability Committee), we continue to build our friendship in many ways. It ranges from small to big things. In 2025, SSC gave us a slot to present our own association at the their welcome event at ETH Zurich, where we even ended up finding a new Lead Team member. More recently, SSC's Christopher Cohen joined us for our Event Creation Party in ZHAW in January. An event-idea which came out of this is now officially part of upcoming Sustainability Week Zurich. 

At SSC, Jacopo Bottoni has been President for 2025-6, while studying Physics at ETH as a Master student.

Let's hear from Jacopo:

Photo Credits: ETH Zürich, partners In GmbH - Stefan Weiss

"During my time in SSC, especially this past year as President, I had the opportunity to interact with many different people and groups across all Zurich universities who are passionate about sustainability. It has been inspiring to see so many actors in this growing community come together to work towards a sustainable future. A great example, and one that I’ve always admired is the NHWZ, where people from many different backgrounds unite to strive for a common goal. We do have organisations which do inter-university work like SSC, but having NHWZ cover five universities gives us the chance to connect our work beyond ETH Zurich.

I had the pleasure to attend several workshops and events organised by the NHWZ, which allowed me to meet all the amazing people behind the scenes. Specifically I remember their Grill&Chill event this summer, where I felt immediately at ease as I was welcomed by amazing people and good food, drinks and great conversations. The sense of community and genuine care I felt during that event is exactly what I wanted to bring within SSC, so I’m proud to leave behind a legacy of collaboration between our two associations. I’m looking forward to see this continue in the upcoming Sustainability Week and beyond."

3. NHK

NHK is the Student Sustainability Commission at UZH, which is part of the student union VSUZH. Our friendship with them is also similar to the one above. VSUZH organised an UZH Activity Fair in February where we were also able to present the work of our Verein. Members of NHK also took part in our Event Creation Parties this year, some of whose events are now officially part of our Week in April. And we are working together with NHK for a very important pre-event in March. This is an Info-event, speedfriending and dinner for all the 50+ student event-organisers and many other volunteers who are making the Week happen. This event is titled "Stronger Together", and here we are literally joining forces to make Zurich's largest student sustainability event happen in the best way possible. 

Leonie Barnsteiner is part of the NHK and is also a Master student in Political Science at UZH. 

Let's hear from Leonie:

Photo Credits: Leonie Barnsteiner

"The NHK wants to be a voice of all the sustainability student organisations at UZH and would like to bring them together. That’s why we teamed up with NHWZ for an event— to grow stronger together.

NHK has contributed to the organisation of the Sustainability Week Zurich in the previous years too, but we wanted to strengthen our friendship further this time. By organising the event "Stronger Together", we are bringing together important organisations in one place. At UZH, the involvement of student organisations committed to sustainability is an important part of the overall sustainability efforts. This is why, we are inviting student organisations working on sustainability to this event, including NaKT, Verso, PBU, Sustainable Business Club and Rethinking Economics. 

At NHK, our goal is to promote sustainable thinking and behaviour in the university and among students. We also use institutional channels such as the official bodies but the work we do through student outreach is very important to us. With NHWZ, we get to further this work by connecting with student sustainability associations from other universities in Zurich."

Along with SSC and NHK, the upcoming Sustainability Week Zurich brings together 50+ events organised by students and student associations. With the theme "Sharing the Future," we have a variety of events such as Bike-Cinema (VeloKino), Foodsave Lunches, panel discussions, biodiversity excursions and more. Our 2026 Program will be released soon on our website and other channels. 

Blogpost by: Ashoka Vardhan Manchala (UZH)

© Nachhaltigkeitswoche Zürich / Sustainability Week Zurich

The 14th Sustainability Week Zurich (Nachhaltigkeitswoche Zürich) will take place 13-17 April 2026. This is a week full of 60+ student-organised events. They are free and open to everyone to attend. You can also volunteer!

This Week happens across 5 universities and their multiple campuses. This includes UZH, ETH, ZHAW, PHZH and ZHdK. Stay updated by following us on instagram, LinkedIn, joining our Whatsapp community. We also have a monthly newsletter.