10. Transformation

The higher education institution explains how it achieves a transformation in favour of sustainable development in its key fields of action by means of suitable processes. It also explains to what extent measures within the fields of action trigger a learning process for the whole organisation and third parties and how processes entrenching the desired transformation are driven forward. This also includes maintaining an ongoing dialogue with local authorities, businesses, policymakers and civil society.

Sustainability-oriented research at the environmental campus

The Environmental Campus Birkenfeld plays a decisive role in shaping the research strategy of Trier University of Applied Science, addressing issues of applied material flow management, technologies for sustainable development, and life sciences (medicine, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology). Of great importance is the networking of research and teaching through the participation of students in the research projects to develop sustainable solutions for current challenges. Since its founding in 1996, a number of institutes and competence centers have been founded and established: Trier University of Applied Sciences is one of the strongest research universities in Rhineland-Palatinate and raised approximately 13.5 million euros in third-party funding last year. The ECB managed to acquire about two-thirds of the total third-party funds of the university with about one-third of the researchers. 

Innovation and science management

As a "Zero Emission University", the ECB uses resources sparingly and continuously reduces its environmental impact. Therefore, the Environmental Campus Birkenfeld is open to establish innovative solutions. The idea of the campus is also to be carried outward in different ways. On the one hand, the students serve as multipliers of sustainable development by taking the knowledge they have gained into their jobs and, in the best case, implementing the idea of sustainability there as well. Furthermore, the innovative concept of the campus is communicated to the outside world through targeted public relations work. Regular public lecture series and Specialist conferences on sustainability topics, such as the annual "PIUS Conference". (production-integrated environmental protection) and the international circular economy week, support the transfer. In addition, interested visitors can take part in the "Open Day" and the regular technical tours of the campus free of charge and thus learn about the available technologies and the environmental performance of the environmental campus.
Furthermore, the entire zero-emission concept is successfully passed on to interested partners by the Institute for Applied Material Flow Management. For example, zero-emission and climate protection concepts have been successfully developed for universities in Morocco, Sri Lanka, Brazil, and China as well as for numerous municipalities in Germany and abroad.

Further examples of innovation and knowledge management at the Environmental Campus Birkenfeld
Further information on research and transfer activities at the campus can be found in the current german sustainability report in the chapters "Research with a sustainability focus".