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I. Hemmer and A.-K. Lindau
on universities and sustainability (“AG Hochschule und Nachhaltigkeit”) of the UN
Decade ESD. This concept included the three action areas research, teaching and
environmental campus management that were all grounded in the guiding principle
of sustainable development. Objectives as well as short, medium and long-term
measures were formulated for each of the three action areas. In addition, the concept
also included a corresponding implementation strategy. The starting conditions for
the concept were favorable, as there were already different existing activities in the
fields of research and teaching and beyond. A very important step was to firmly anchor
the topic of sustainability in the KU’s organizational structure with the help of this
concept. At the same time, a sustainable development coordinator was entrusted with
the coordination of the implementation process of the sustainability concept (carried
out as secondary function in addition to the position as Professor of Didactics of
Geography) with the support of a steering group. Since 2012, the KU has issued an
annual sustainability report (hhttps://www.ku.de/unileben/nachhaltige-ku/nachhalti
gkeitsbericht). In subsequent years, the KU was able to achieve almost all objectives
as stipulated in the concept and implement nearly all proposed measures. Several
years ago, the university has extended the number of action areas by adding three
additional fields: Governance, transfer and student initiatives & commitment were
added as additional action fields besides the existing areas of research, teaching and
campus management (Fig. 3). The decision to expand the focus to these six fields
of action is based on the scientific debate dealing with the transformation of higher
education institutions in connection with sustainability (KriNaHoBay 2017; HochN
(https://www.hochn.uni-hamburg.de/); Bauer et al. 2018) and has proven worthwhile
in practice, also in connection with sustainability reporting.
Between 2010 and 2020, the university’s continuous commitment in becoming a
sustainable university was rewarded with numerous awards (Fig. 2), including the
Fig. 3 The sustainability action areas at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (illustration:
C. Pietsch)
I. Hemmer and A.-K. Lindau
on universities and sustainability (“AG Hochschule und Nachhaltigkeit”) of the UN
Decade ESD. This concept included the three action areas research, teaching and
environmental campus management that were all grounded in the guiding principle
of sustainable development. Objectives as well as short, medium and long-term
measures were formulated for each of the three action areas. In addition, the concept
also included a corresponding implementation strategy. The starting conditions for
the concept were favorable, as there were already different existing activities in the
fields of research and teaching and beyond. A very important step was to firmly anchor
the topic of sustainability in the KU’s organizational structure with the help of this
concept. At the same time, a sustainable development coordinator was entrusted with
the coordination of the implementation process of the sustainability concept (carried
out as secondary function in addition to the position as Professor of Didactics of
Geography) with the support of a steering group. Since 2012, the KU has issued an
annual sustainability report (hhttps://www.ku.de/unileben/nachhaltige-ku/nachhalti
gkeitsbericht). In subsequent years, the KU was able to achieve almost all objectives
as stipulated in the concept and implement nearly all proposed measures. Several
years ago, the university has extended the number of action areas by adding three
additional fields: Governance, transfer and student initiatives & commitment were
added as additional action fields besides the existing areas of research, teaching and
campus management (Fig. 3). The decision to expand the focus to these six fields
of action is based on the scientific debate dealing with the transformation of higher
education institutions in connection with sustainability (KriNaHoBay 2017; HochN
(https://www.hochn.uni-hamburg.de/); Bauer et al. 2018) and has proven worthwhile
in practice, also in connection with sustainability reporting.
Between 2010 and 2020, the university’s continuous commitment in becoming a
sustainable university was rewarded with numerous awards (Fig. 2), including the
Fig. 3 The sustainability action areas at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (illustration:
C. Pietsch)