Prizes awarded in the "Ecological Sustainability" ideas competition

In the summer semester, all members of the university and students were invited to submit their ideas on how the university could improve its balance sheet as part of the university's sustainability campaign. The proposals, especially the winning ideas, will now be checked for feasibility.

In the "User Behavior" category, students David Thierer, Frederik Beer and Marcel Werner were awarded first prize (500 euros): Stickers on the paper towel dispensers and on printers are intended to encourage the economical use of paper as a resource. The benefits for the environment are huge: the university currently uses around 15 million sheets of printer paper and 24 million sheets of towel paper per year. Second and third place went to employee Andreas Göttig for his idea to equip the heating systems in (office) rooms with modern electronic heating controllers, and again to students David Thierer, Frederik Beer and Marcel Werner for their idea to restructure the canteen so that the vegetarian/vegan dishes are served directly at the first counter.

The winners in the "Technical and Organizational Improvements" category are employee Madlen Lorenz and employee Florian Emanuel for their proposal to install motion detectors in corridors and infrared detectors in classrooms, and employee Ilona Knie for her idea "Light off". Manual light switches are to be installed here so that lights can only be switched on when needed. The switches can be fitted with overrun relays so that the lighting switches off again automatically after a short time. Both ideas share the 1st prize of 250 euros each. 2nd place goes to Prof. Dr. Oliver Hensel for his idea "E-Cargo". In future, internal transportation could be carried out using the company's own e-cargo bikes, which are charged at solar charging stations. Employee Inken Poßner was awarded 3rd place for her suggestion to set up a permanent reporting office that can be contacted with suggestions on how to conserve energy and resources.

A total of 73 suggestions for improving sustainability at the University of Kassel were submitted. 37 contributions came from the student body, 35 from employees and one suggestion was submitted by a mixed group. The prize money donated by the cdw Foundation totaling 1,500 euros was awarded yesterday (29 June) during the Campus Festival in the Campus Center.