German universities are trying to become more environmentally friendly
As Deutsche Welle reports, the focus is now on seasonal and regional products, and most dishes will be vegetarian or vegan. This is what the students themselves requested, according to German student support organizations.
This is one of the measures for climate neutrality (enterprises must fully offset CO2 emissions through new technologies, etc.) that German universities are striving for. Environmental friendliness is in vogue today, although it has taken a back seat due to the pandemic. Many universities in Berlin and Brandenburg have already formulated clear plans and are taking initial steps.
The question arises: how can a university harm nature? After all, it is not a huge corporation producing hundreds of cars a day. "Our university has about 40,000 students and staff. It is like a small town. And the amount of carbon dioxide emitted can be compared to the emissions of one enterprise," explained Martin Herrmann, environmental manager at Humboldt University, in an interview with DW.
The least environmentally friendly aspects of German universities include business trips and research travel, heavy use of paper, old, poorly insulated academic buildings and dormitories that consume a lot of energy, as well as data centers with servers at technical universities. Many capital city universities are now working to identify such environmentally harmful areas and try to change them.
Humboldt University, for example, has set a goal to become climate-neutral by 2030 and has hired two environmental managers to achieve this. Wiebke Hampel and Martin Herrmann consider this task very ambitious but also attractive – the university could become a model of effective environmental management for other German universities.
For now, the experts are developing a concept that could identify all CO2 sources and non-eco-friendly actions of the university. One of the challenges is the old buildings, which are historical architectural monuments, making renovations difficult. Most of the university's electricity already comes from green sources.
Many student dormitories in Potsdam have already switched to an eco-friendly path: they use only green electricity, motion sensors in hallways to automatically turn lights on and off, and new wastewater treatment systems in basements.
Technical University of Berlin aims to achieve climate neutrality by 2045. To do this, university premises need to be rebuilt and renovated to make them energy-efficient. Another step in favor of nature protection: more than 400 university staff have signed a pledge to avoid short flights on business trips. They commit to using eco-friendly transport for distances under a thousand kilometers. Other universities in Berlin and Brandenburg have followed their example – a total of about two thousand employees are participating in the campaign.
At the Free University of Berlin, energy management began 20 years ago. In the first year of the pandemic, CO2 emissions related to building operations were reduced by 80 percent. But it is too early to talk about success – this semester, students will return from remote learning to the university for the first time, and then real calculations can be made.
Attitudes toward business trips have also changed here. "Personal contacts, for example at scientific congresses, are very important. But we will carefully consider whether long and environmentally unfriendly trips are necessary for each specific occasion," explained the university's president, Günter Ziegler, on the university's official website.
It is clear that during the pandemic, the reduction in flights became possible not only because of a love for nature, and universities can now boast a large number of online business trips. But what will happen when all coronavirus restrictions are lifted?
"This time turned out to be very beneficial, because the transition to online was inevitable anyway. But without the pandemic, hardly everyone would have switched to Zoom overnight. Of course, in some situations it is not the best solution, but the willingness to replace a trip with a conference call has become much higher," Herrmann is confident.
Another thing is that now researchers and students have more options for communication. And to defend a doctoral dissertation, a professor today will hardly fly from New York to Berlin, as was the case before.