On Aug. 15th, 2011, Tongji Delegation led by Prof. Jialun ZHOU, Council Chairman of Tongji University, visited United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and conducted a fruitful meeting with Mr. Achim Steiner, Undersecretary General of UN and Executive Director of UNEP.

Mr. Achim Steiner welcomed the Tongji delegation, and thanked them for the excellent collaboration between UNEP and Tongji. He noted follow-up from the last UNEP-Tongji Institute of Environment for Sustainable Development (IESD) Board Meeting in November 2010 and highly appreciated great success of the first International Student Conference in Shanghai in June 2011. He looked forward to continuing UNEP’s partnership with Tongji University and highlighted the evolving role for IESD by not just focusing on the WHAT (technology) but also on the HOW (public policy).

Prof. Jialun ZHOU on behalf of Tongji University, expressed his sincere thanks to Mr. Steiner and for UNEP's strong partnership over the past 9 years.He highlighted support for UNEP's Global University Partnership on Environment for Sustainability (GUPES), and three pillars of activities at IESD - education, research and outreach. Prof. Zhou referred to the success of the recent International Student Conference in Shanghai, and mentioned that Tongji would hold it on annual basis. Besides, Prof. ZHOU sincerely invited Mr. Achim Steiner to revisit Tongji at a convenient date.
During the meeting, both sides have reached the agreement to strengthen cooperation on education, research and training in future.