Climate Challenge 2025 with Universities in Norway
UiT - a university with 11 campuses and study locations across northern Norway - was participating in a climate challenge internally and against other universities in Norway. The goal was to save as much CO2 as possible over 10 days and raise awareness about everyday activities and their carbon footprint.
The competition was centered around habits regarding purchasing goods and services, food, energy and transport. Logging activities shows their impact on each person’s carbon footprint and provides opportunities to learn more about these aspects and how to make more sustainable choices in our everyday life.
UiT had 43 participants among students and employees. Together, we all saved 2 022.83 kg of CO2e during these 10 days, with almost 2000 activities. Most active were online students, followed by students and employees from Tromsø, Harstad and Alta.
This result equals 33 tree seedlings grown for 1 year, 162 000 smartphone charges, using a play station PS4 and a plasma TV for 4 years, or 1.8 electric-powered passenger vehicles driven for 1 year (numbers from Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator).
The 10 most popular activities of UiT participants were:
- Avoiding printing unnecessary paper,
- Avoiding single-use items such as plastic bottles,
- Recycling as much waste as possible,
- Switching off unnecessary lights,
- Avoiding throwing away any food,
- Re-using worn clothes for something else (e.g. wearing something again at home or for sports) OR only washing full loads in the laundry machine,
- Not buying any articles,
- Taking the stairs instead of the lift or moving stairs,
- Eating vegetarian breakfast,
- Re-using a shopping bag instead of buying a new (plastic) bag.
Climate challenge (Klimakonkurranse) is a Norwegian-based online app to track climate efforts. The app was built by the software development company Ducky with the goal in mind to support raising awareness and teambuilding around sustainability. It is translated into English and may thus invite a wide audience.
The competition was arranged by the environmental organisation Framtiden i vare hender (Future in Our Hands) that has a strong focus on reducing overproduction and overconsumption, particularly through structural changes, and they also work extensively on communication and changing attitudes among the population. They have organized the Climate Competition for several years with companies and organizations. Having a competition for universities and higher education is something they have wanted to do for several years, and now it happened!
Four other universities from Norway also joined: Oslo University, Bergen University, NMBU and Nord Universitet. Together, we were 726 participants and saved 46 400 kg CO2e – an amount that equals 767 tree seedlings grown for 10 years, 3 752 000 smartphone charges, or 41 electric-powered passenger vehicles driven for 1 year (numbers from Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator). The competition itself was accompanied by events, panel discussions and debates around it, and feedback from the participants.
The climate challenge shows that one can make something fun out of something that seems overwhelming at a first glance. It also shows that everyone can make a positive impact, that we are not alone but part of a community, and that we can achieve a lot together. We hope to inspire more universities to undertake similar actions and build a community around sustainable actions.
Andrea Schneider is a climate and environmental advisor at UiT the Arctic University of Norway. Originally from Germany and having lived in Sweden and on Svalbard, Andrea has many years of experience with the coordination of research projects, fieldwork, outreach and communication, and has a passion for the environment.
A collage from the climate competition with some insights into activities and topics. Climate competition is developed by Ducky and organized by the Norwegian environmental organisation Framtiden i våre hender. © Ducky's Klimakonkurranse
