Taking ETH apprentices along on the sustainability journey

Every August, a new generation of apprentices begins their professional journey at ETH Zurich. This year, 60 young people joined ETH ¨C ready to learn, to experiment, and to contribute to the university¡¯s daily life. Often working behind the scenes, around 200 apprentices across ETH bring essential skills to areas ranging from laboratory work and IT to administration and libraries.

As ETH Zurich strives to become a leading institution in sustainability, it is only natural that the next generation of professionals grows with this mindset from the start. Together with ETH Sustainability, the vocational training teams have begun integrating sustainability as a key element of the apprentices¡¯ education ¨C making it part of what they do, not just what they learn.

The collaboration started in 2025 with a series of workshops and activities designed to make sustainability tangible. During the Net Zero Day, apprentices took part in an interactive workshop inspired by the ¡°Umweltprobleml?sen¡± course from Environmental Sciences, identifying opportunities to make their own workplaces more sustainable.

 In June, a biodiversitymonitoring workshop with Lo?c Pellissier¡¯sresearch group (D-USYS) introduced them to eDNA monitoring techniques and gave them a glimpse into ETH¡¯s cutting-edge research on ecosystems while exploring lesser-known part of the campus.

The highlight so far came during the welcome week camp at Beinwil am See in August 2025. Surrounded by lakeside views and alpine air, ETH Sustainability team members Sophie Hammerl and Sebastian Kahlert guided the new apprentices through a hands-on sustainability workshop. After a short introduction to the basics of sustainability and climate change, the participants moved through five interactive stations:

• A food waste quiz where the apprentices learned that the average person in Switzerland discards food worth around CHF 620 each year.
• A seasonality and regionality puzzle where produce had to be sorted into the correct season.
• A milk tasting station with six different milk alternatives like apricot pit milk, a byproduct of jam production.
• A handful of handmade produce cards which had to be sorted on an environmental impact matrix including water use, land use, and greenhouse gas emissions.
• A tasting station with vegan cheese and meat topping alternatives ¨C the apprentices¡¯ favourite was vegan cottage cheese.

Their enthusiasm turned learning into discovery, and the camp ended with only one bag of leftover materials ¨Ceverything else had been sorted and  recycled by the apprentices themselves.

These first activities mark the beginning of a learning journey that will continue throughout the apprentices¡¯ time at ETH. The goal: to equip them with the knowledge, creativity, and confidence to make sustainability a natural part of their professional life.

Looking ahead

This workshop marked the first step in embedding sustainability directly into the apprentices¡¯ training experience. Over the course of the year, they will be able to take part in additional activities, gradually deepening their knowledge and skills. Together, these efforts contribute to ETH Zurich¡¯s transformation toward becoming a leading university in sustainability¡ªdriving change not only through research andteaching, but also through its institutional operations.

The collaboration with apprentices during the welcome week camp and other workshops has been an enriching and inspiring experience for ETH Sustainability. Apprentices are an integral part of the ETH community, and their involvement strengthens the university¡¯s commitment to embedding sustainability at every level. ETH Sustainability looks forward to continuing this cooperation and to welcoming apprentices as active participants in the university¡¯s sustainability journey.

The workshop materials are readily available to be reused ¨C you can also pick up the printed and laminated materials at ETHSustainability.