Sustainability at the UW/H

The UW/H has committed itself to sustainability in its basic regulations; moreover, the UW/H mission statement formulates as a central motive "to be able to shape the changes in society in a sustainable and justway."

Essential to this development is the Sustainability Networking Office. It advocates for a social-ecological transformation of UW/H by.

• Enabling, supporting and initiating change,
• jointly implementing and reminding measures, and
• advising and networking on sustainability issues.

Sustainability concerns both campus operations (including mobility, energy and building management, or procurement) and the university's core areas of teaching, research, and transfer. In addition, the student-led initiative laboratory is located at the Sustainability Networking Office.

The Vernetzungsstelle is the point of contact for all sustainability issues. Please feel free to contact the Vernetzungsstelle with any questions, project or cooperation ideas regarding the socio-ecological transformation of the UW/H!

Decentralized sustainability strategy and approach

An essential milestone for a sustainable and equitable university is the Sustainable Development Roadmap, the decentralized sustainability strategy of the UW/H. In the Roadmap, all departments, the WittenLab.Zukunftslabor Studium fundamentale and departments of the administration have defined with which goals and measures they contribute to a social-ecological development of the UW/H in their respective areas. This comprehensive catalog, prepared as of June 2021, emphasizes the perspectives for action and is therefore a living document that changes continuously, especially when individual measures have been successfully implemented or new ones are added. The Sustainable Development Roadmap is open to the public at the university and can be sent to you if you are interested.

In addition to this decentrally derived strategy, measures for a social-ecological UW/H are also integrated into appropriate processes (e.g. university development plan, teaching planning and evaluation, etc.), so that sustainability becomes an integral part of the university's DNA.

Climate protection concept for the entire UW/H

In order to achieve a targeted and meaningful reduction of greenhouse gas emissions at the UW/H, the Sustainability Network is currently drawing up a climate protection concept in close cooperation with other internal and external stakeholders.

A climate protection concept contains a_{CO2 balance sheet} that shows the burdens that result from the operation of the UW/H. This includes, for example, the areas of buildings, energy consumption, and energy consumption. This includes, for example, the areas of buildings, media consumption, mobility, procurement and disposal. At the heart of a climate protection concept are action plans that identify realistic and feasible steps for reducing greenhouse gas pollution - for example, for the construction of photovoltaic systems, air-source heat pumps and waste management.

The creation of the climate protection concept is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection in connection with the National Climate Protection Initiative. The university community will be involved in the process of developing the concept through various formats (e.g. climate protection workshop).

Field trial: organic regional and healthy food on campus

The "Field Trial" project aims to combine the organic regional value creation of agricultural producers in Witten's Pferdebachtal with aspects of health promotion and sustainable community catering at the UW/H. Not only the university community, but also the immediate neighborhood is to be integrated into the emerging field of experience. The project is funded by the Software AG Foundation.