The higher education institution explains how sustainability aspects are integrated into the activities of the whole institution – including its downstream organisational units – and what steps it is taking to embed sustainability throughout the higher education institution and to continuously strengthen and improve the integration of sustainability.
At the UCB, sustainability is lived holistically
Specific sustainability guidelines have been developed for the environmental campus and a sustainability council has been appointed to manage and evaluate the guidelines and goals. This committee meets at least once a year and consists of representatives of the university management, the departments, the operating technology, the equal opportunity office, the AStA environmental and social department, the GreenOffice, and the person responsible for sustainability of the environmental campus.
In order to document and evaluate the sustainability developments, as well as to ensure the implementation of the guidelines, the Environmental Campus has been reporting on its sustainability activities in the regularly published Sustainability Report since 2011. The latest version of the "Sustainability Report 2017/2018" was prepared for the first time in 2018 in accordance with the requirements of the "German Sustainability Code (DNK) for Universities". On an internal basis, the organization of processes also takes place in accordance with the requirements of the DIN EN ISO 14001 environmental management standard.
Quality assurance and development, in the sense of an ongoing effort to achieve excellent studying, teaching, and research achievements, are central concerns and fundamental Tasks of the entire university. The internal quality management system at the Environmental Campus Birkenfeld of Trier University of Applied Sciences, aims at a permanent and transparent Securing as well as a continuous and sustainable improvement of the quality in studying and teaching. It is based on a strategy to continuously improve the quality of the study programs as well as the attainability of the intended qualification goals. Quality management at the Environmental Campus ensures that the sustainability strategy is adhered to. In this way, excellent studies, teaching, and research services can be provided at the campus.
The Environmental Campus Birkenfeld offers a variety of events and activities that make the topic of sustainability accessible to a broad public. In addition to classic event formats such as lecture series and continuing education courses, the UCB also relies on innovative and participatory action and involvement formats with various social actors, such as the "Girl's and Boy's Day" at the Environmental Campus Birkenfeld. For one day, girls and boys can experiment, research, and program at the Environmental Campus, according to their preferences, in a workshop of their choice.
The resource-saving use of resources, especially in terms of the efficient control of operating and building technology, is of fundamental importance in this service. The Environmental Campus also communicates with its suppliers and business partners within the value chain in order to identify social and ecological problems at an early stage and develop improvement strategies. An example of this is the cooperation with the energy suppliers, from whom the environmental campus exclusively purchases CO2-neutral green electricity and local heating from renewable resources or the cooperation with the Campus Company, which provides daily offers vegetarian and vegan dishes and every Friday at the request of students cooks completely meatless.