YES Youth Encounter on Sustainability

This is the global network of motivated and committed individuals who have undergone intensive training in the Youth Encounter on Sustainability (YES) courses.  These individuals were specially selected for their high potential to become agents of positive change in addressing global sustainability issues. 

In the year 2000 the Alliance for Global Sustainability (a unique university partnership between MIT Boston, University of Tokyo, ETH Zurich and Chalmers University) started an initiative under the title Youth Encounter on Sustainability (YES) to realise intensive two-week summer courses in a small mountain village in Switzerland.

From the inception in the Swiss alps, the course has now been implemented around the globe, from the Tatra mountains in Slovakia (YES Slovakia), to Mount Fuji (YES Japan), to the Nakuru National Game Park in Kenya (YES Africa), to the Danube wetlands (YES Austria) and the rainforests of Costa Rica (YES Latin America). 

Since 2009, the specially created ETH spin-off organisation ACTIS - Activating Talent in Sustainabiliy, has taken on full responsibility for carrying out the courses, with active engagement from local partner organisations and institutions.

Today the alumni network comprises of over 1000 students, young professionals and academics with a broad educational background spectrum, from many different parts of the globe. One of the major goals of providing this platform for the network is to inspire the YES alumni to take further action to bring about positive change in their own lives and communities.