University starts the new semester with a sustainability campaign - ideas competition

With a series of postcards, Post-Its and e-mail banners, the University of Kassel is raising awareness of sustainability and environmental protection among students and staff in a relaxed manner. "Everyone knows that the lights don't have to be on all the time or that you can print on both sides of paper. But it's easy to forget this in everyday life. With our campaign, we want to raise awareness and remind people that it is very easy to make studying or working more sustainable and efficient," explains Prof. Dr. Alexander Roßnagel, Head of the Commission for Ecological Sustainability. A website providing information about the campaign and the environmental profile of the University of Kassel has also already been created.

In order to present the university's new sustainability strategy, the Occupational Safety and Environmental Protection Group, which is organizing the campaign, is holding two information days on 26 April at the Holländischer Platz campus in front of the canteen and on 4 May at the Witzenhausen site, Steinstraße, both from 11 am to 3 pm. They are also the start of an ideas competition in which anyone who has suggestions on how sustainability, environmental protection and efficiency can be increased in everyday university life in a practicable way can take part.
The University of Kassel has set itself the goal of developing all areas of the university into a sustainable organization. By the end of 2017, for example, it aims to reduce energy consumption by 5 % in relation to the area used and the number of people and, in the longer term, reduce the volume of residual waste by 40 %.

More than 60 professors from a wide range of departments have joined forces in the University of Kassel's environmental network. A Commission for Ecological Sustainability (KöN) has been set up to develop ecological, economic and social sustainability. It supports the administration and the departments in the development and implementation of the sustainability strategy.

Further information on the campaign and the ideas competition can be found at: www.uni-kassel.de/go/nachhaltigeuni


Contact:
Georg Mösbauer and Nathalie Schnell
University of Kassel
Commission for Ecological Sustainability
Occupational Safety and Environmental Protection Group
nachhaltigeuni[at]uni-kassel[dot]de