On campus

Green Campus Initiative

Our Green Campus Initiative aims to minimise the school’s environmental footprint and raise awareness for sustainability issues. The initiative seeks to implement pragmatic but impactful measures and is at the same time developing a broader sustainability strategy for the Hertie School.

Our goal is to create a community that supports the well-being of all its members, while working to achieve the same for future generations. At the core of the initiative is the Green Campus Committee. It leads and oversees sustainability activities on campus and the Green Campus Action Programme, which lays out the measures that will help us achieve our goals.

Green Campus Committee

The Green Campus Committee is a permanent governance body jointly chaired and co-led by Christian Flachsland, Professor of Sustainability and Director of the Hertie Centre for Sustainability, and Dr. Axel Baisch, Managing Director. Caroline Forscht and Sarah Lawton-Görlach act as the Hertie School’s Green Campus Officers and coordinate the Committee’s work.The Committee includes representatives of diverse units at the Hertie School and cooperates closely with its leadership. Beyond reducing the Hertie School’s environmental footprint, special attention will be given to measures that support individual well-being and promote a healthy working and studying environment.

The committee will:

  • Monitor the implementation of measures and evaluate progress towards goals.
  • Steer the process of selecting and developing new ideas.
  • Develop a comprehensive sustainability strategy for the Hertie School.

 

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Christian Flachsland, co-director of the Green Campus Committee, explains the Sustainable Campus Initiative and some of its goals.

Green Campus Action Programme

The Green Campus Action Programme outlines a set of concrete and pragmatic measures to promote sustainability on campus and reduce the school’s carbon footprint. The suggested measures are of varying nature: from short or medium term actions to measures that can be included into routine workflows by Hertie School units, and others that represent additional workload or costs. The Green Campus Action Programme is a “living document” and will be updated and adapted on a regular basis.

 

“I was positively surprised by the composition of the Sustainability Committee. It brings together different levels of experience, different perspectives and above all a lot of motivation to make the Hertie School more sustainable.”

Cornelia Woll, President and Professor of International Political Econom

“I am really proud that we have already taken such concrete steps within such a short time. Looking forward to the next session!”

Johann Maximilian Voss, MPP 2020, on the working group process. Johann was co-initiator of the student’s initiative for an action plan for sustainable credibility in 2019

As part of the Green Campus Action Programme, sustainability considerations are mainstreamed into the day-to-day campus operations by following the Sustainable Campus Guidelines, developed in close cooperation with the responsible units at the Hertie School. They include sustainable ways of procurement, event organisation, library management and sustainable food guidelines. The aim of this initiative is to foster sustainability in daily work and study routines as well as encourage and enable the engagement of all members of the Hertie School community for more sustainability on campus.

Relevant documents related to our Sustainable Campus initiative

Point of contact for sustainability related initiatives

 

If you have questions or ideas on how to advance sustainability at the Hertie School, do not hesitate to get in touch with our team of Green Campus officers.