Corrupt practices are a significant threat to the achievement of the ⁠UN⁠ sustainability goals. Corruption damages the environment, leads to mismanagement and loss of natural resources and misappropriation of funds earmarked for environmental protection, ⁠adaptation to climate change⁠ and ⁠climate protection⁠, and ultimately hinders sustainable development. This close connection is often not sufficiently taken into account by the respective actors in public authorities, non-governmental organisations and the scientific community.

For this reason, a heterogeneous group of national and international experts from various relevant professional fields and sectors was invited to the workshop to shed light on the relationship between corruption, the environment and sustainable development from a personal, institutional and overall societal perspective. After jointly working out the extent of the problem, suggestions were developed on how environmental and sustainability experts can be enabled to avoid corruption risks at all levels – from local to global.

With the TES Academy, the ⁠UBA⁠ wants to enable people to initiate transformation processes towards sustainable development across national and professional boundaries and to develop the necessary structures. To this end, the TES Academy offers inter- and transdisciplinary learning and cooperation spaces in which participants can experience and (co-)shape concrete change processes in response to current challenges. In this way, the TES Academy is facilitating joint learning and long-term international cooperation, promoting collaborative networks and partnerships, and further developing personal and institutional potential in order to advance social transformation for a sustainable future worldwide. The TES Academy will initially run in a pilot phase until the end of 2024 as part of ⁠UBA⁠'s own research.