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I. Hemmer and A.-K. Lindau
intensively and was very well received from the outset. In recent years, the KU has
been very active in the field of continuing education and professional development
and offers training especially in the field of university teaching methodology and
teacher training.
3.2.4 Action Area ‘Student Initiatives and Commitment’
Active involvement and student commitment is a driving force for transformation on a university’s path to more sustainability. This becomes evident in
initiatives such as the international Green Office movement (https://www.greenoffi
cemovement.org/de/) or the corresponding German-speaking network ‘Netzwerk n’
(https://netzwerk-n.org/). Student initiatives can initiate and significantly advance
transformation processes. Interestingly, they are only rarely mentioned as an action
area at universities in relevant literature. The Bavarian project KriNaHoBay is the
only one to explicitly mention this action area (KriNaHoBay 2017, https://www.nac
hhaltigehochschule.de/projekte/).
At the KU, the “Environmental Department” (“Umweltreferat”) was already
founded around 1990 as an independent sub-group of student representatives at the
KU. Its members actively worked towards the KU becoming a more sustainable
university in the years following the Rio Conference of 1992. With a large-scale
project, they also contributed to increasing the awareness for sustainability within
the region. In the end, they did not succeed in transforming the university. However,
student initiatives dealing with the topic of sustainability remained and started to pick
up pace again since 2008. In summary, it can be said that the students also played an
important role in connection with the KU agreeing on a sustainability concept (see
Sect. 3.1). They participated in drafting the concept and have been members to the
sustainability steering group ever since. The “Environmental Department” carries out
a number of own sustainability activities every year and participates in other initiatives, such as lecture series with representatives from professional practice, clothes
swap events, dance theaters on sustainable topics with actors from the global south,
sustainable Christmas markets etc. (Schöps and Hemmer 2018).
In 2010, students founded the association “ThinkSustainably!” (“DenkNachhaltig!”) to address topics such as sustainability, social innovation and entrepreneurship. The association is a platform enabling exchange between students and representatives from society and the industry. It offers presentations and talks, discussion
rounds and workshops in regular intervals. Past workshop topics included ‘Agile
Management’, ‘Design Thinking’ and ‘Scrum’. A format on sustainable business
ideas is currently being planned.
In addition to these two initiatives, there are meanwhile five other student initiatives that are committed to the concept of sustainability and support corresponding
activities. In 2019, students founded the initiative “Students for future” and also the
respective student umbrella organization has intensified its activities in this field.
I. Hemmer and A.-K. Lindau
intensively and was very well received from the outset. In recent years, the KU has
been very active in the field of continuing education and professional development
and offers training especially in the field of university teaching methodology and
teacher training.
3.2.4 Action Area ‘Student Initiatives and Commitment’
Active involvement and student commitment is a driving force for transformation on a university’s path to more sustainability. This becomes evident in
initiatives such as the international Green Office movement (https://www.greenoffi
cemovement.org/de/) or the corresponding German-speaking network ‘Netzwerk n’
(https://netzwerk-n.org/). Student initiatives can initiate and significantly advance
transformation processes. Interestingly, they are only rarely mentioned as an action
area at universities in relevant literature. The Bavarian project KriNaHoBay is the
only one to explicitly mention this action area (KriNaHoBay 2017, https://www.nac
hhaltigehochschule.de/projekte/).
At the KU, the “Environmental Department” (“Umweltreferat”) was already
founded around 1990 as an independent sub-group of student representatives at the
KU. Its members actively worked towards the KU becoming a more sustainable
university in the years following the Rio Conference of 1992. With a large-scale
project, they also contributed to increasing the awareness for sustainability within
the region. In the end, they did not succeed in transforming the university. However,
student initiatives dealing with the topic of sustainability remained and started to pick
up pace again since 2008. In summary, it can be said that the students also played an
important role in connection with the KU agreeing on a sustainability concept (see
Sect. 3.1). They participated in drafting the concept and have been members to the
sustainability steering group ever since. The “Environmental Department” carries out
a number of own sustainability activities every year and participates in other initiatives, such as lecture series with representatives from professional practice, clothes
swap events, dance theaters on sustainable topics with actors from the global south,
sustainable Christmas markets etc. (Schöps and Hemmer 2018).
In 2010, students founded the association “ThinkSustainably!” (“DenkNachhaltig!”) to address topics such as sustainability, social innovation and entrepreneurship. The association is a platform enabling exchange between students and representatives from society and the industry. It offers presentations and talks, discussion
rounds and workshops in regular intervals. Past workshop topics included ‘Agile
Management’, ‘Design Thinking’ and ‘Scrum’. A format on sustainable business
ideas is currently being planned.
In addition to these two initiatives, there are meanwhile five other student initiatives that are committed to the concept of sustainability and support corresponding
activities. In 2019, students founded the initiative “Students for future” and also the
respective student umbrella organization has intensified its activities in this field.