Sustainability

RPTU conducts research on specific sustainability issues and in various areas of sustainable development. We are constantly expanding these areas, including through interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaborations. Within our research activities, we are increasingly trying to take sustainability principles into account, thereby fulfilling our responsibility for the development of sustainability in society as a whole. 

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and sustainability-related degree programs are already firmly established at RPTU. In the long term, topics relating to sustainability are to be incorporated even more broadly into all degree courses. The ESD expertise of our teaching staff is continuously promoted and further developed. Competence-oriented teaching and learning concepts enable students to help shape the teaching and learning processes. Individual sustainability modules supplement the sustainability curriculum. 

Sustainability also plays a major role in the transfer area   , for example in the mediation of contacts in business, society and politics, in the application of specific research results, within patents or at the start-up consultancy. As a university, we are addressing the pressing sustainability issues of our time in social discourse.

Our students are involved in student initiatives on sustainability, both within our university and beyond. They are committed to sustainable development, sustainability issues in teaching and sustainable university operations. And they are involved - in our Green Offices, as student assistants or volunteer student employees, in student self-administration and in committees or working groups on sustainability.

Transformation processes towards sustainability can only be realized with a motivated and active university community. It requires the participation of as many status groups as possible. In turn, the university community benefits from a more sustainable organization. To achieve this, we rely on various participation formats and regular communication on sustainability issues within our organization.

We are gradually establishing a systematic sustainability management system for our university operations. Our aim is to make all key areas of university operations - energy, mobility, waste and procurement - more sustainable. We are committed to transforming RPTU to climate neutrality in the coming years.