Climate protection is a joint task

The university's public presentation of the climate protection team and the milestones up to our university's integrated climate protection concept  was received with great interest and led to a lively discussion.

This interested and friendly welcome motivated us even more and we are certain that we will achieve the overarching goal of making our university climate-neutral and even climate-positive in the long term together with all of you.

We - Florian Reß and Annekathrin Kluttig - are the new climate protection team at Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences, headed by Ms. Karin Hollstein and Ms. Anke Zenker-Hoffmann. Our task is to develop an integrated climate protection concept for the HSZG, to anchor climate protection as a joint task in all areas of the university and to come a step closer to climate neutrality with the first concrete measures.

Stocktaking phase

We are currently in the stocktaking phase. We are clarifying the extent to which climate protection is already being actively implemented at our university. The greenhouse gas emissions generated are recorded in a specific balance sheet and the current and planned activities in the individual areas and departments are compiled. We are collecting all data on energy consumption, mobility, products and consumables used, but also on training content, research projects and transfer services with potential for active climate protection and are looking for new possibilities for offsetting and crediting in the form of_{CO2 equivalents}. Over the next few days, we will also be inviting the deans, heads of department and employees to talk to us about the current status in the individual areas and their personal ideas and expectations.

Next steps

We will present the results of the inventory, in particular the greenhouse gas balance, at university-wide participation events in the autumn and discuss and develop the first measures and their prioritization together with interested university members.

In order to address and integrate all interest groups among university members, a climate council will also be established in which representatives of our internal and external interest groups can support our work, contribute ideas and be heard. The aim is to safeguard all interests and derive optimal measures and approaches.

The fact that all members of the university want to be closely involved was also made clear by the answers to the question posed by Florian Reß during his presentation: "To what extent would you like to be informed about and involved in future measures?" Among others, Ms. Uta Lemke, student councillor, said: "I think it would be great if we were regularly informed about the activities [of the climate protection team] throughout the university, preferably by a short email, perhaps with a link to the website. And if something like the concept papers or similar, if that's public, that you can see it. And in general, I think it would be important for us as students to be involved in the project so that all groups are integrated."

Making progress on climate protection

In the discussion that followed the presentation, further aspects of climate protection were addressed: Prof. Jens Weber believes that the university is already well positioned in terms of environmental protection, but that climate protection still leaves a lot to be desired. One of the reasons he gave for this was his experience in Building Z VI, whose building envelope is no longer state of the art in terms of energy efficiency. For the office and laboratory building that is currently being planned, he is hoping for concrete arguments from our greenhouse gas balance and our climate protection concept. Chancellor Ms. Hollstein confirms the university's efforts to influence the planning in a very concrete way with aspects from the climate protection concept in order to build as far as possible beyond the state of the art and thus be able to act as a pioneer and multiplier. [Note: The university does not own the buildings and therefore has limited influence on the design].

Other ideas for improving climate protection at our university were also shared with us directly: For example, Mr Ronny Freudenreich in the chat: "What role can digitalization play in this context - or in other words: what role can sensibly designed home office concepts for employees and online learning formats for students play (in particular to reduce avoidable travel distances /_CO2-causing journeys)?" Of course, these are all questions that must and will be considered in the future climate protection concept.

Furthermore, according to Chancellor Ms Hollstein, an incentive system such as that already used by various organizations, such as the DAAD, could also be a sensible approach at our university. For example, a direct reward for the use of sustainable means of transportation on certain trips could be an effective way of reducing emissions from business trips.  Ms. Hollstein is certain that we in Zittau and Görlitz can also score points in climate protection and lead the way as pioneers.

Prof. Kollmorgen thanked us for the input and the public presentation of our project, as "we need this in order to have an intensive university-wide impact, because we need the participation of everyone, not just all status groups, but actually all members of our university ."

We clearly agree with this. Climate protection is a topical issue that definitely needs more attention. However, we can only achieve this together and with your support.

Finally, we would like to thank all colleagues and students who have been and will be actively involved in shaping our future climate protection concept. We very much look forward to working with you all in the future!