Central European University Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy

The real-world performance of over 100 energy-efficient buildings across Austria for years in this recent publication. The results are striking: these buildings consume around 50% less energy than conventional ones.

Diána Ürge-Vorsatz is a professor at our department.

Every heatwave brings another wave of air conditioner installations. But is that really the answer? ☀️

New research co-authored by CEU's Professor Diana Urge-Vorsatz suggests there's a smarter, long-term solution: building better in the first place.

The study, published in Energy Policy Group, evaluated the real-world performance of over 100 energy-efficient buildings across Austria over many years. The findings are striking: these buildings consume around 50% less energy than conventional ones, keep emissions well below Paris Agreement targets, and critically, maintain these results under actual operating conditions, not just in simulations.

As Austria faces increasingly frequent tropical nights and temperatures above 35°C, the implications are clear. Investing in better insulation and high-performance construction could significantly reduce the need for intensive cooling, making climate adaptation far cheaper in the long run.

🔗 Read more about the research: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421526000418?ref=pdf_download&fr=RR-2&rr=a26634702dd05afb

Prof. Ürge-Vosatz is open for interview request on relevant topics. Contact our media team under: [email protected]

Photo source: urgevorsatz.org/

Our students enrolling to our department in Fall with US residency will have the possibility of funding their research/thesis project via the Marshall Fund. Contact us for more details!

CEU is proud to join the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation as a partner university and to contribute to strengthening transatlantic academic exchange between Europe and the United States. 🇦🇹🤝🇺🇸

We look forward to fostering new collaborations, many research opportunities and connections across this dynamic network!

Our faculty, students and alumni in action!
Message from Dr. Anke Schaffartzik (and added notes in brackets):

"I'm currently at the POLLEN (Political Ecology Network) Conference in Barcelona, where our department is extremely well represented:
Peter Bori (doctoral student, supervisor Alex Antypas/Michael LaBelle) gave an excellent (and very well-received) plenary talk on "An authoritarian 'environmentalism': power concentration and delegitimization in the Green Transition under Hungary's Orbán regime"
and Noemi Gonda (Guntra Aistara's first PhD student, our alumna) asked one of the questions.
Loris Petrini (doctoral student, supervisor Tamara Steger) presented "Towards ‘Subversive Subsistence’: Exploring Insurgent Infrastructures for Food Provision in French Activist Resistance"
Ambika Sairam ("Gendered (Im)Mobilities in Flood-Prone Cities: Mapping geographies of Mobility and Climate Injustice in Hyderabad and Kochi" - doctoral student of Anke Schaffartzik) and Emiliana Reinoso ("Mining in Northern Chile: A Feminist Political Ecology Approach" - Mespom master student) have their presentations this afternoon.
My own talks (on lignite mining in Germany and on global trade patterns for electrification and renewable energy expansion) also went well.

It's the biggest POLLEN conference so far (about 3000 participants) and I've heard from the organizers that there were many more abstracts submitted than could be accepted for presentation, so it really seems worth celebrating that we've been allowed to make all these contributions.
Guntra Aistara and Tamara Steger, thanks so much for your longstanding efforts in political ecology research and teaching at CEU."

Congratulations to our Dr. Guntra Aistara who has received CEU's 2026 Teaching Excellence Award in June!

'Aistara is an accomplished environmental anthropologist, renowned for her program-level leadership and her innovative, multi-layered, and student-centered teaching that combines structure with experience and experimentation. Her nominators note that Aistara’s teaching evokes a “sense of intrigue and curiosity that inspires learning,” and that “her classes motivate students to build critical thinking skills around complex and relevant environmental questions through a process of independent and experiential discovery.” '

The CEU Teaching Excellence Award recognizes CEU faculty members who promote high standards of teaching in alignment with the university’s mission and institutional ambitions. Established by the CEU Senate in 2014, this award not only underscores CEU's long-standing commitment to excellence in teaching but also provides an opportunity for faculty, students, and alumni to acknowledge teaching at CEU that has had a special impact on their academic work and lives.

https://www.ceu.edu/news/2026-06/ceus-2026-excellence-and-academic-awards-honor-outstanding-research-teaching-and

Our department is thrilled to host Dr. Gary Bañuelos, an internationally recognized Plant/Soil Research Scientist, for a presentation on his pioneering work in sustainable agriculture and soil management. Dr. Bañuelos will discuss how nature-based strategies, such as phytoremediation and biofortification, can be used to clean up challenging and adverse environments while simultaneously producing valuable, nutrient-dense agricultural crops.

📅 Date: Wednesday, July 1, 2026 ⏰ Time: 14:00 – 15:30 📍 Location: CEU Campus, Room B505

Open to the public! Non-CEU guests, please register for campus access here: forms.gle/61RESvbLqWn1nzSz9

On 27 May 2026, CEU hosted the kick-off and matchmaking event for the bi-annual Favoriten Climate Festival, scheduled to take place on 4 June 2027.

The event was opened by the Mayor of Favoriten District, Marcus Franz, followed by welcome speeches from CEU Professor Anke Schaffartzik, Vienna Board of Education representative Horst Pintarich, and Matthieu Floret from the festival’s organising committee.

The kick-off brought together more than 50 participants, including school teachers, NGO practitioners, researchers, and academics, representing over 15 schools and 20 public and non-profit organisations.

Two of our PhD students from the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy, Lena Grobusch and Liqin Du hosted a workshop on "Green the City: Nature-Based Solutions for Urban Resilience" on CEU's Long Night of Research (Lange Nacht der Forschung) on April 24, 2026 at its Vienna campus with great success!

The audience really enjoyed the presentation and the interactive game created for the event using the Urban Nature Explorer developed in the earlier Naturvation project. The workshop also encouraged participants to reflect on how greener urban spaces and nature-based solutions may relate to their everyday lives and lifestyle choices.

Our "Green the city" workshop on CEU's Long Night of Research | Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy CEU hosted its Long Night of Research (Lange Nacht der Forschung) on April 24, 2026 at its Vienna campus, offering free, public access to interactive science exhibits, workshops, and lectures. This event is part of Austria's national celebration of research and innovation, which brings together univ...

Big Plant Sale in Vienna April 9-11 in CAPE 10, 1 Alfred-Adler-Straße #5 1100 Wien. Get your place into Spring mode!

Großer Pflanzenverkauf - Wien Der großer Pflanzenverkauf in deiner Nähe: Direkt vom Züchter, kleine Preise, eine große Auswahl an Pflanzenarten.