ESD action week and student engagement at the University of Vechta

The University of Vechta, IAU Member and part of the IAU HESD Cluster, engages students and staff in various activities for sustainability, on campus and beyond.

ESD Action Week After a first successful action week in 2018 on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), a similar event is planned to take place from 30. November - 6 December 2020 at the University of Vechta. During this week, all lecturers at the university will be challenged to integrate the topics and methods of ESD into their regular courses. There will be the opportunity to get support from colleagues inside and outside the university and, for example, invite speakers to events. All courses that take part in the action week are compiled in a program booklet. The highlight of the week is a central public event that takes up a current topic related to sustainable development in the form of a lecture or panel discussion. After a successful implementation in the first two years, the aim is to stabilize the action week organized by AG Sustainable University and Vice President for Studies and Teaching. In September 2020, the University of Vechta engaged its students with a social media campaign "University Vechta is cooking for tomorrow" (#univechtakochtfuermorgen ). On the occasion of the German Sustainability Action Days, the Sustainable University working group announced a theme week on sustainable nutrition on its new Instagram account. Part of the campaign was the daily posting of a self-tested recipe for dishes with seasonal, regional and vegetarian / vegan ingredients. The recipe collection created in this way can now also be viewed and used beyond the campaign. Furthermore, the University of Vechta was awarded 4th place in the paper atlas in October 2020, being one of the most recycled paper-friendly universities in Germany this year./It consistently uses Blue Angel paper. The paper atlas has been showing the paper consumption and recycling paper quotas of German universities for five years. Partners are the Federal Environment Ministry, the Federal Environment Agency and the German University Association. This year 43 universities took part in the competition. On average, they already use more than 75 percent paper with the Blue Angel, setting a new record. By using recycled paper, the University of Vechta makes an important contribution to protecting the climate and resources: Compared to fresh fiber paper, the production saves at least 60 percent water and energy and causes significantly fewer CO2 emissions. Last year the University of Vechta was able to save more than 362,000 liters of water and over 74,000 kilowatt hours of energy. More information on the ESD action week and the University of Vechta's engagement for Sustainability can be found here: https://www.uni-vechta.de/uni/nachhaltige-hochschule/home/ The University of Vechta is a Satellite in the IAU HESD Cluster for SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production.

Sustainable Development Goals