On 5 July 2022, organised by the UNEP and the Alliance for Sustainability Leadership in Education (EAUC), and with the support from Tongji University, the UNEP Youth and Education Alliance (YEA!) Global Summit was held online with YEA! Members, global partners, representatives from the international higher education community around the world. The summit discussed key topics regarding UNEP Sustainability University Framework, the little book of green budges, as well as the campaign of Race to Zero for Universities and Colleges.

During the summit, Prof. WU Jiang, Dean of IESD, made the introduction in the plenary session on how to influence systems change within higher education system. Prof. TAN Hongwei shared the practices of the China Green University Network (CGUN) during the breakout session on the UNEP Sustainable University Framework. Dr. WANG Xin, Vice Dean of IESD, moderated the opening.

In 2010, Tongji University and UNEP initiated the Global Universities Partnership on Environment for Sustainability (GUPES) in Nairobi, with the aim to promote the integration of environment and sustainability concerns into teaching, research, community engagement, the management of universities including greening of university infrastructure/facilities/operations, as well as to enhance student engagement and participation in sustainability activities both within and beyond universities. IESD served as the Secretariat of GUPES and Prof. WU Jiang was appointed as the Chair. In 2019, GUPES was upgraded to YEA!, with Tongji University as the Co-Chair.