Perspectives of Climate Change
Adaptation
in Organizations—A University’
Example
Hardy Pundt, Martin Scheinert, and Andrea Heilmann
1 Introduction
The societal impacts of climate change are diverse. Depending on which IPCC
scenario is taken as a basis, climate change will have repercussions that require the
development of sustainable measures to mitigate harmful incidents such as droughts,
floods, heavy storms, heatwaves, and other weather phenomena (Nakicenovic and
Swart 2000). The explanation why global warming occurs and intensifies and what the
consequences of those rising temperatures are crucial in numerous fields of society.
Agriculture, forestry, water management, soil protection, urban and regional planning, energy provision, desertification, heat management in rural and urban areas,
melting of ice masses, the invasion of new species, traffic coordination, leisure—
there is hardly any societal nor economic sector that is not concerned with climate
change in a certain way. Therefore, it is essential to discuss climate change in politics, society, and sciences and to bring ideas, expertise and the latest insights of such
different groups together.
Climate change is a challenge for mankind, and therefore the main institutions
which teach young people facts, concepts and strategies to improve living conditions
on Earth, namely schools and universities must address this challenge. Universities have a public responsibility to inform society about facts and data on climate
change with reference to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 (SDG Knowledge Platform 2020). Furthermore, they should contribute to developing concepts,
strategies and concrete measures to deal with the problems arising from new climate
phenomena. Sustainable measures, however, can only be achieved if the relevant
stakeholders are involved, thus avoiding that solutions end up in the drawer.
H. Pundt (B) · M. Scheinert · A. Heilmann
Department of Automation and Computer Sciences, Harz University of Applied Sciences,
Friedrichstr. 57-59, 38855 Wernigerode, Germany
e-mail: hpundt@hs-harz.de
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
W. Leal Filho et al. (eds.), Universities, Sustainability and Society: Supporting
the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, World Sustainability Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63399-8_21
323
Adaptation
in Organizations—A University’
Example
Hardy Pundt, Martin Scheinert, and Andrea Heilmann
1 Introduction
The societal impacts of climate change are diverse. Depending on which IPCC
scenario is taken as a basis, climate change will have repercussions that require the
development of sustainable measures to mitigate harmful incidents such as droughts,
floods, heavy storms, heatwaves, and other weather phenomena (Nakicenovic and
Swart 2000). The explanation why global warming occurs and intensifies and what the
consequences of those rising temperatures are crucial in numerous fields of society.
Agriculture, forestry, water management, soil protection, urban and regional planning, energy provision, desertification, heat management in rural and urban areas,
melting of ice masses, the invasion of new species, traffic coordination, leisure—
there is hardly any societal nor economic sector that is not concerned with climate
change in a certain way. Therefore, it is essential to discuss climate change in politics, society, and sciences and to bring ideas, expertise and the latest insights of such
different groups together.
Climate change is a challenge for mankind, and therefore the main institutions
which teach young people facts, concepts and strategies to improve living conditions
on Earth, namely schools and universities must address this challenge. Universities have a public responsibility to inform society about facts and data on climate
change with reference to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 (SDG Knowledge Platform 2020). Furthermore, they should contribute to developing concepts,
strategies and concrete measures to deal with the problems arising from new climate
phenomena. Sustainable measures, however, can only be achieved if the relevant
stakeholders are involved, thus avoiding that solutions end up in the drawer.
H. Pundt (B) · M. Scheinert · A. Heilmann
Department of Automation and Computer Sciences, Harz University of Applied Sciences,
Friedrichstr. 57-59, 38855 Wernigerode, Germany
e-mail: hpundt@hs-harz.de
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
W. Leal Filho et al. (eds.), Universities, Sustainability and Society: Supporting
the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, World Sustainability Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63399-8_21
323