Making Science Organizations Sustainable—The Mission of the Max Planck Sustainability Network

Abstract

The Max Planck Sustainability Network (MPSN) is a grassroots network within the Max Planck Society (MPG), with ∼370 members from over 60 Max Planck research institutes, aiming to support sustainability within a German science association committed to fundamental research. The MPSN has adopted the twin goals of making research practices within the overall MPG more sustainable and of supporting local Sustainability Groups in making research practices at their individual institutes more sustainable. The MPSN counts members from diverse backgrounds, regarding both academic field of expertise and roles within the MPG. Its activities focus around Energy, Mobility, Supplies and Waste, Biodiversity and Food, with the ambition to assess impact and expense of each proposed measure. The network's long-term vision is to make research more sustainable and to serve as a role model that inspires other scientific organizations to become sustainable and to optimize the operation of research and administration, which require both individual and structural changes.

The paradox of the life sciences

“…Founded in 2019, the MPSN is a grassroots initiative within the Max Planck Society (MPG). Several hundred members from 65 different institutes are organized in individual sustainability groups focusing on topics such as energy, mobility, supplies & waste, and biodiversity & food (Fardet et al , 2020 ), with the common goal to make the MPG and science in general more ecologically sustainable. The network is coordinated and represented by a steering committee, which is elected by representatives of the sustainability groups on an annual basis.…”

Organisations' contributions to sustainability. An analysis of impacts on the Sustainable Development Goals

“…Most research on organisations' contributions to the SDGs has been on companies (Topple et al, 2017; van Zanten & van Tulder, 2021), followed by higher education institutions (HEIs) (e.g., Hansen et al, 2021; Mawonde & Togo, 2019; Perales Franco & McCowan, 2021; Vávra et al, 2022), PSOs (see Bolton, 2021; Soberón et al, 2020) and some efforts by CSOs (Fardet et al, 2020; Hassan et al, 2019).…”

The Sustainability Argument for Open Science

“…Open-source tools for CO2 assessment developed by bottom-up initiatives are slowly growing (Anthony et al, 2020;Lannelongue et al, 2021;Mariette et al, 2021;Schmidt et al, 2021), for example assessing environmental impact of large-scale research projects like the GRAND project (Aujoux et al, 2021). The climate crisis urges science to become more sustainable on an individual and systemic level, which requires carbon-conscious scientists, the development of low carbonimpact labs and projects, as well as a reformation of the academic incentive structure (Fardet et al, 2020;Rosen, 2017).…”

“…Some of the open science practices above are closely linked to primary research activities (e.g., data collection, publishing preprints, and making code openly available) and Individual researchers may also advocate systemic changes, for example by advocating for sustainable solutions at local institutions, teaching and researching about climate change, and by founding and supporting grassroots movements for sustainability in science (Fardet et al, 2020;Hagedorn et al, 2019) and open science (list of global open science initiatives, guide on how to found one).…”