As we are approaching the summer holiday, I want to give a ‘six-month forecast’ on the AU weather report and outline some important areas we will be working on in the autumn:

AU wants to become even more sustainable than we are now. This is a major element in the strategy process the AU Board is currently working on. In connection with this, the board has requested that we calculate a baseline for the university’s total climate impact.

I’ve requested work on on this baseline to begin after the summer holiday, when a greenhouse gas emissions assessment will be calculated in collaboration with our technical staff. The process will be based on the so-called GHG (greenhouse gas) protocol which is the most important and most recognised international standard for measuring greenhouse gasses. It is a solid method for analysis that will enable us to examine our direct emissions from our own operations and transport, as well as our indirect emissions associated with energy we purchase, mainly electricity and heating, and a number of other parameters.

On the basis of this assessment of the actual environmental impact, we will be able to focus our initiatives to make AU even more sustainable, for example through the use of new technologies or purchasing strategies in the areas where we can identify the greatest potential gains.

There is also a different kind of environmental impact that is important to AU: the work environment. Thanks to the WPA in the spring, we gained new insights into this area. The survey showed that stress is an area we need to focus on, and that management development and management training is an issue that continues to be an important task for the administration. We will continue to work on these issues after the summer holiday.

The last aspect of our plans for the future that highlight here is the decision to divide Science and Technology into two independent faculties. This decision will result in a number of changes – also for the administration.

The board accepted the academic division of the faculty in June, and now the process of the administrative division of the faculty will begin, including the establishment of working groups for each administrative area. Analyses will be made on how to ensure stable operations, but at the same time remain open to new opportunities that may appear, such as opportunities for collaboration and technological solutions, when we perform a more granular analyses of work areas and tasks.

Digital initiatives may also turn out to be helpful, as I mentioned in last month’s blog (link), as the overall vision for the entire digitisation strategy is to use technologies to strengthen our organisation and administration.

As always, there will be lots to do after the summer holiday. But, for now, I want to wish you all a great summer holiday – I hope you’ll get to enjoy some time with your friends and family. Thank you for all your hard work in the first half of 2019 – we will return with renewed energy after the holiday.  

  If you have any comments or questions regarding the above, as always, I’d be happy to hear from you. Please write your comments to this email.