Sustainability in Everyday University Life
"It is not only those who do wrong who are responsible for all the nonsense that happens, but also those who do not prevent it."
Erich Kästner
Sustainability is expressed through diversity and reveals itself across spectrums between relationships and value judgments, differences or uniqueness and standards or standardization, as well as humanity and system or structure.
Higher education institutions are actors in structural policy, i.e., universities actively help shape transformations. With regard to sustainability, every member of the university community can contribute to sustainability. The poster exhibition warmly invites you to implement pathways towards greater sustainability in everyday university life. The German Environment Agency (UBA) also provides a wide range of suggestions. The new UBA guide The Path to Climate-Neutral Public Administration enables effective steps for proactive action.
In addition, this questionnaire (as an online version) can be used for self-assessment / a Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) to identify sustainability-oriented areas of action in everyday university life. The SAQ serves to support self-reflection on possible sustainability activities of all organizational members of TU Chemnitz and to identify fields of action for implementing sustainability in and at TU Chemnitz.
Pathways to a circular economy always lead through waste. Proper waste disposal conserves resources, relieves pressure on nature, and prevents human-caused habitat destruction. Many incorrect disposals are found in residual waste ⇒ Residual waste problem: high share of incorrect items in the residual waste bin. The ASR shows what goes where with its brochures:
Sustainability in Business and Economics
Business and economics should outline new visions for a more sustainable world
Sustainability in Principle
Sustainability addresses a value-based understanding in dealing with resources, people, animals, plants and nature, as well as cycles in the present and the future. Development towards sustainability includes a value stance regarding an equal weighting of ecological, social and economic principles and goals. The principles of sustainable development include shaping human systems while taking into account ecological and social carrying-capacity limits and scientific principles. The Earth’s ecosystems must remain intact in their assimilation, buffering and regenerative capacity, and planetary boundaries must be respected, in order to enable life and human economic activity in the long term. This also includes shaping socially resilient structures and economically more robust systems. Sustainability-oriented value creation must produce quality, be geared towards long life and use phases, and bring about a rethink in consumption. This simultaneously requires a readjustment of fundamental economic principles.
Our (Federal Republic of Germany) principles for sustainable development
- apply sustainable development consistently everywhere as a guiding principle
- assume global responsibility
- strengthen natural foundations of life
- strengthen sustainable economic activity
- safeguard and improve social cohesion in an open society, and
- use education, science and innovation as drivers of sustainable development
UBA explainer video: Sustainability
Sustainability principles |
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Principle |
Explanation |
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Intergenerational and justice principle |
Fundamental ethical principle of caring for future generations and ensuring fairness for those living today |
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Precaution and reversibility principle |
According to environmental ethics, forward-looking risk assessment is necessary; set limit values low enough that the risk is acceptable; measures should be reversible |
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Polluter-pays principle |
The polluter bears the costs; important for internalizing costs; economic instrument; ideally self-regulating |
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Integration principle |
Integration of the triadic concerns as well as across sectors, locations and time |
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Regionality and subsidiarity principle |
Regional solutions and regional resource cycles are generally sustainable, especially in nutrition and water management |
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Solidarity principle |
Complements the regionality principle; upstream-downstream relationship; balancing between catchment areas |
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Cooperation and participation principle |
Fundamental approach: stakeholder involvement in the sense of good governance |
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Iteration and dynamics principle |
Sustainability-related decisions must be reviewed repeatedly during planning and again later |
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Transparency principle |
enables monitoring and further development in the sense of iteration and participation, as well as quality assurance |
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Efficiency principle and consistency principle |
Avoid emissions at the source; avoid environmentally critical substances; use resources efficiently and sparingly; cleaning at the point of origin |
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Sufficiency and substitution principle |
Aspect of moderation (frugality) or replacement by more sustainable resources |
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Resilience principle |
Maintaining the stability of the overall system; optimization and targeted redundancies / safety margins to critical states are necessary |
Develop a sustainable world! Go along with Sustainable Development Goals
