Who we are
The Institute for Sustainable Development (IDS) is a new interdisciplinary academic unit, belonging to the entire Catholic University through its 18 Faculties, to the UC College and the Regional Headquarters of Villarrica. The IDS is a collective project that seeks to respond to the complex challenges that emanate from the socio-environmental crisis.
We offer an academic space aimed at strengthening the contribution of the UC to sustainable development, through transformative teaching, inter and transdisciplinary research, and collaboration with society.
We have courses, training programs, lines of academic research, and projects linking with public policy at the service of sustainable development for the country and the planet.
Mission and vision
Mission
keyboard_arrow_downThe mission of the Institute for Sustainable Development is the training of people, the creation of knowledge, the promotion and promotion of integral ecology and sustainability, contributing to the integral development of the human being.
For this, the Institute aims to train generations of professionals who understand the depth of the crisis we face, feel questioned by it and contribute decisively to planetary sustainability.
The Institute also contributes through reflection on theories, processes and models of development in a critical way. Evaluating its ecological and social viability at different geographical scales.
In addition, it seeks to contribute to public policies, social practices and initiatives at different levels that meet fundamental human needs respecting ecological limitations, according to the mission, principles and values of the University.
Vision
keyboard_arrow_downWhere do we want to be in 2025?
In the heart of the university community. Generating a new dialogue on how to inhabit and live the future, in the care of the common house.
Playing a transformative role in and from the UC, catalyzing and articulating the existing capacities in the university and beyond, reinforcing the public role of the UC and its commitment to a fairer country, and contributing to the Sustainable Development of Chile and the world.
As a reference in Chile and the region, with solid collaborative links with top-level institutions, dedicated to Sustainable Development.
Generating in an articulated way with other academic units and centers, various training routes in sustainability in pre- and postgraduate.
Maintaining collaboration as a fundamental and transcendental principle to all action driven by the IDS and the love for the planet and all its forms of life, the engine that mobilizes us as UC.
Our story
The desire to have an academic unit oriented to the challenges of planetary sustainability has been present in multiple academics and students. The momentum generated by research seminars, collaborative projects, student groups and so many other initiatives, prepared the atmosphere that allowed the start of this journey that leads to the Institute for Sustainable Development (IDS).
The decisive seed that gest the emergence of the Institute for Sustainable Development, takes place in January 2018. After the coming of Pope Francis to Chile, and as a legacy of the encyclical Laudato si’, the Chair of Sustainability was created. This initiative was responsible for promoting and strengthening sustainability in training and research within the UC.
The Chair gave rise to the interdisciplinary course SUS1000 (Sustainability), as an active and transformative learning experience, to form agents of change. This course generated a multiplier effect, which was followed by other courses and collaborative projects always with an interdisciplinary approach.
In September 2020, the Honorable Superior Council of the UC, approved the creation of the IDS, as an even broader, collaborative and integrated response to the socio-environmental challenges we are experiencing.
The Institute is installed as an articulator of different initiatives and approaches, some to be developed and others that the University has been carrying out in Sustainability for decades, to collaborate more intentionally and effectively with this global challenge.
Our team
The Institute for Sustainable Development (IDS), is composed of a diverse group of academics and professionals, especially in terms of disciplines and areas of knowledge. The plurality of its composition reflects the value of interdisciplinary for the times of transformation we face; having different perspectives, experiences and knowledge allows us to face socio-environmental challenges from a better position.
