University of Kassel at the forefront of the development of a sustainable higher education landscape

In this way, the North Hessian university is signaling its great interest in networking with active universities. The aim is to participate in the development of a more sustainable higher education landscape and to drive the transformation process forward.

DG HochN was founded in April 2020 with the purpose of supporting the UNESCO program "Education for Sustainable Development 2030" in the German higher education system. The UNESCO program aims to ensure that by 2030 all higher education institutions in Germany make sustainability and education for sustainable development as defined by the Sustainable Development Goals a visible and effective expression of their work in research, teaching, operations, governance and transfer. By 2030 at the latest, all students in the German higher education system should be able to acquire Education for Sustainable Development in a recognizable proportion in their respective courses of study.

The university will take up this goal and build up research and teaching competencies on all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations in the Kassel Institute for Sustainability . The center, which is currently still under construction, is comprehensively dedicated to the topic of "sustainable development" and will introduce a consecutive bachelor's and master's degree program focused on the SDGs in teaching, which can also be studied in English. Different study program variants will allow students to combine a specialized science with an SDG­module.

As part of an operational re-launch, the university will also establish a Green Office to further develop and drive the operational sustainability process. It will shape the university's own operations into a sustainable organization in order to achieve climate neutrality. In the process, findings from the areas of research and teaching will be incorporated. The Green Office will be established as a central contact, organization and coordination point for all areas and members of the university in order to be able to anchor the cross-cutting issue of sustainability in all operational processes, both internally and externally.

In order to make use of these developments in research, teaching and operations as well as the knowledge and competences, the dialogue with society is sought via UniKasselTransfer in order to take up impulses and questions from here and to solve them together with science. In this way, new formats will bring together scientists and students on the one hand and experts and practitioners from politics, business, culture, organized civil society and a regional public on the other.

This overall institutional approach is intended to contribute to the involvement of all university members in the sustainability process of the University of Kassel via the core areas of the university: research, teaching, operations and transfer.

For more information, please visit:  https://www.uni-kassel.de/uni/universitaet/profil/profil-umwelt-und-nachhaltigkeit/umwelt-und-nachhaltigkeit

Contact:
Nadine Chrubasik
Sustainability Manager
Integrated Sustainability Management in Operations
Tel.: +49 561 804-2519
E-Mail: chrubasik[at]uni-kassel[dot]de

Georg Mösbauer
Head of Occupational Safety and Environmental Protection Group
Representative for Occupational Safety, Health, Environmental Protection and Sustainability in Operations (AGUN)
Tel.: +49 561 804-3811
E-mail: moesbauer[at]uni-kassel[dot]de