The higher education institution explains how it analyses the effects of its key activities with respect to sustainable development and what understanding of sustainability these are based on. The higher education institution describes how it operates in line with the key, accepted national and international standards specific to higher education institutions.
Ever since the founding of the Environmental Campus Birkenfeld, sustainable development and circular economy have been formative for the design of all activities of the university. The sustainability strategy takes a holistic approach that encompasses teaching, research, transfer, and operations. The starting point for the implementation of the sustainability strategy is the materiality analysis, which is used to analyze important topics and activities of the university in relation to the environment and nature, social responsibility, and human rights issues. The basis for this is the annual presentation of the current situation and evaluation of the sustainability goals set in previous years. Furthermore, weak points are identified and new solutions and goals for sustainable university operations are formulated. The results are documented and subsequently made available to all stakeholder groups. With the regular publication of the sustainability report, the developed goals and recommendations for action in the Sustainability Council are also presented to the public in the form of a declaration of conformity to the University German Sustainability Codex every two years. As a zero-emission university, the climate-neutral design of the university is one of the most important features of the Environmental Campus Birkenfeld. In its role model function, the campus has thus firmly integrated the idea of sustainability into life and action at the location. In addition, by establishing its sustainability guidelines (mission statement), the Environmental Campus Birkenfeld commits itself to a sustainable orientation of the university as well as to the continuous improvement of its own sustainability performance. The subject of the analysis is the examination and presentation of all input and output factors of the Environmental Campus Birkenfeld. The aim is to present the effects of the university's operations on people and the environment in accordance with the GRI reporting standards. With the publication of the sustainability report for the year 2018, the first declaration of conformity to the University German Sustainability Codex was also submitted by the Environmental Campus Birkenfeld. And now the first English version of the German Sustainability Codex is published for 2019.
Detailed information on the effects of the material activities with regard to a sustainable development of the university can be read in the current sustainability report. The german sustainability reports of previous years are available as download available via the UCB homepage.